The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-03-06

no sleep for me. would turn one side
toward the fire while the other would
nearly freeze, and then reverse. Before
morning it clouded up and at day light it
began to snow.
/ ate my breakfast and started to find
the wounded caribou. When | got out
into the bog I heard the sound of a
woodsman axe. 1t was long way Off,
but it was just the kind of a morning to
hear sounds. I took out my compass,
took the direction of the sound of the
axe, and then started to find the wounded
caribou. The snow was now falling fast.
followed one of them awhile, but the
snow had covered the blood, and there
were so many tracks made by other Carl
bou that / could not tell one from the
other, so had to give them up. re-
turned to the bog and took the direction
OF the sound of the woodsman's axe.
After travelling about two and half
miles found a crew of loggers landing
their logs into the lower Quakish Lakes
OF the West Branch of the Penobscot
River. | went to camp, made me hun
ter1s sled, and the next day hauled out
my two ca ibou and sent them to Med
way by team that was hauling supplies
to the camp. The next day I went back
to the bog and found where quite num-
Der of the drove of caribou had gone at
the time did the shouting. Their tracks
were not completely covered by the
storm. They took a crooked course. but
one generally. northerly. followed I'M
til night, and came out on the West
Branch between North Twin dam and
North Twin lake. The river at this
point was open water. and the caribou
had swum across. Here / was again, no
n m nd IL i
trees that had been killed by overfowing
water. The moon was shining brightly
to help me out collecting wood FOR the
night. My axe was light and the wood
was hard, SO it was slow work to prepare
1t. But | got through the night as be-
fore. Next morning went down to the
dam, crossed over and went up until I
struck the trail followed all day as
before, going over very crooked courses,
generally northward. When within an
hour of sunset came to Milnocket Lake,
about ten miles south of
Katahdin Mountain.
Here found tote road near the lake,
but which way to go to find the camp I
did not know. But I found an old camp
by the side of the road and made mp nv
mind to stop in it that night and give the
caribou another try next day. went to
work gathering wood for night, and
when night came I built my fire and
thawed my bread and beef and swallowed
some of it. This camp was a little bet
ter than bed out in the snow, but it
was cold just the same. There was an
old tin basin that put on my head to
keep the cold cut of my head, but
could not sleep. had to keep turning
first one side and then the other to the
fire. Iwould lose myself occasionally,
but the cold would not let me sleep. The
next morning it began to snow again. I
took up my caribou trail again. They
crossed the cove and went into large
bog. Here found that they had made
another stop, bat had tramped about so
| much that was was puzzled to tell what
direction to look for them. So gave
them up and struck for the lake. It was
near the lake struck their fresh trail
with hardly any snow in their tracks. I
knew they were close by, so worked
along very carefully, and soon came upon
them. l
Shot Down Four
of them and wounded the fifth. The
rest of the drove left, and did not fol-
low them up. prepared those I had
shot to take out, and started for the
''tote'' road to look for camp where
could get some sleep. found crew of
loggers about two miles away. I got my
four caribou out to the shore of the lake
and waited day or two for tote team
to take them out.
This was my first caribou hunt /
killed six and wounded three more, and
think it is easy for any one to see that
there is not much chance for hunter to
take comfort camping on the trail of
game in the winter. But this is not as
bad as it is when the hunter runs his
game down, and then has to camp in the
woods in the snow. In running down
game 4he hunters clothes are saturated
with the perspiration and he must work
hard to keep from freezing when he
stops running [ have often heard men
tell about digging a hole in the snow and
with little fire and single blanket sleep
warm. I have tried it every way and I
can't keep warm in our coolest weather.
in the snow with one single blanket
But sometimes have slept well with a
moose skin or large caribou skin. The
| hunter that can stand the kind of hunt
| ing I have tried to write about needs an
iron constitution; and then he is foolish
| to do it. J. DARLING,
Lowell, Me.