stefansson-wrangel-09-31-069v

102 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

as one; when working without plan, either may easily
spoil the other’s chances. When the fog lifted my mind
was at length freed from this worry, for the caribou were
in a position where they could not be approached except
from my direction, and a hunter coming up behind me
would be bound to see me as soon as he saw the caribou.
That would be his warning to keep hands off.

As I wanted the whole band, I now used a method of
shooting designed to that end. When described it may
seem cruel, but it is in reality the least cruel of all meth-
ods, for by it every animal fired at will be dead within
a few minutes, while an indiscriminate blazing away, not
uncommon among hunters, whether native or white, will
allow wounded animals to escape to a torture that will
end days later either by death from the wounds directly
or from wolves that will get a crippled animal more easily
than those that are unhurt.

A caribou shot through the brain will drop so instan-
taneously that it frightens the herd. One shot through
the heart will usually sprint at top speed anything up
to a hundred yards, and that frightens the band still moreworse
Neither of these shots is, therefore, possible permissableif you want
to secure an entire band. I accordingly waited until an
animal near the middle of the herd, but not very close
to the other caribou, presented its side to me. I then
took careful aim so that the bullet should pass through
the body just back of the last rib. An animal thus A beast
wounded will stagger at the blow, but will not run. It
evidently has no idea of what has happened, but feels a
pain or discomfort which induces it in a few minutes
to lie down in a manner identical with the quiet lying
down of a well-fed ruminant that is going to rest and
chew the cud. Caribou are like sheep about imitating