HUNTING CAMPS IN WOOD
AND WILDERNESS

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Photo]

H. HKSKETH PRICHARD

HUNTING CAMPS

IN WOOD AND WILDERNESS

BY

H. HESKETH PRICHARD, F.Z.S.,

AUTHOR OF
"THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA," "WHERK BLACK RULES WHITE," ETC.

WITH A FOREWORD BY

FREDERICK COURTENEY SELOUS

GOLD MEDALLIST OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

ILLUSTRATED BY LADY HELEN GRAHAM, E. G. CALDWELL,

AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

LONDON

WILLIAM HEINEMANN

1910

Copyright, London, 1910, by William Heinemann.

FOREWORD.

IT is some years now since I first made the acquaint-
ance of Mr. Hesketh Prichard, who had then only just
returned from his great journey through the unexplored
wilds of Patagonia, a really remarkable achievement
for so young a man. At that time Mr. Prichard was
perhaps better known to his fellow-countrymen as a first-
class cricketer and joint author with his mother of many
popular works of fiction than as an explorer and hunter,
and it was as a cricketer that I first came to know
him at all intimately, for he was good enough during
several successive seasons to bring down a team to
play against the village eleven of which I was, and
indeed still am, the President. In the intervals of our
cricket, we talked big game, and appraised the worth
of the caribou and moose heads in my collection, which
I had then recently brought from Newfoundland and
the Yukon Territory of Canada, and Mr. Prichard's
young enthusiasm, whether for cricket or big-game
hunting, always did me good, and it is this same quality
in the pages of the book, for which these few lines will
serve as an introduction, which has given them a charm
for me which I do not always find in accounts of shoot-
ing trips. I have read every chapter in this book with
very great interest. Those on caribou hunting in
Newfoundland have appealed to me very strongly,

vi FOREWORD.

because I also have wandered very widely over the
barrens and across the lake-strewn wastes of that wild
and beautiful land in search of the same broad-antlered
stags ; whilst on the other hand the descriptions of
Mr. PricKard's hunting experiences in Patagonia, in
Labrador, in Norway, and in Eastern Canada have all
given me the greatest interest because I still have hopes
of following his footsteps into, at least, some of the more
accessible of these hunting grounds of which he has
been the pioneer.

In reading this book — and I trust it will be widely
read both in this country and on the other side of the
Atlantic — no one can fail to be impressed with the fact
that Mr. Prichard has worked very hard for and well
deserved all the fine trophies which have fallen to his
rifle. He has never killed wantonly, but on the con-
trary over and over again has spared the life of a
thoroughly warrantable stag, in the hope — which was
as often as not disappointed — of meeting with a better.
Whether in Patagonia, Norway, Newfoundland, or here
on our Worplesdon cricket ground, Mr. Prichard has
always played the game as a true sportsman should.
What can I say more except to express the hope that
this book will be widely read and that the Author's
forthcoming hunting and exploring expedition into the
wilds of Labrador will meet with all the success which
I am sure it will so well deserve.

F. C. SELOUS.

WORPLESDON, SURREY,
May 25th, 1910.

PREFACE.

A PORTION of some of the chapters in this volume
has appeared in the form of articles in BlackwoocPs
Magazine,, Cornhill, and Fry's Magazine, and I wish
here to make my acknowledgments to the Editors of
these periodicals.

The hunting districts 1 have described in the follow-
ing pages fall into two categories. They are either, as
in the case of Norway, Canada, and Newfoundland,
within easy distance of Great Britain, or else they are
altogether out of the beaten track. A considerable
part of the ground covered in Patagonia, Labrador, and
even in Newfoundland, had not previously been visited
by sportsmen, and there the conditions remain to the
best of my belief unaltered in the short time which has
elapsed since I passed through them.

A few statistics may be of interest. Apart from the
game which I was forced to shoot in order to feed a
comparatively large party in crossing Patagonia, I find
that during the trips dealt with in this book, as far as I
can calculate, I fired at an animal on an average once
for every six days' hunting. I mention this because
an idea seems to be prevalent among a section of the
community that big game shooting is inseparable from
slaughter on a large scale.

viii PREFACE.

I wish to tender my thanks to Lady Helen Graham
for the trouble and care she has taken over the beautiful
illustrations she has kindly contributed to this book, for
which also I have been fortunate in obtaining some
particularly fine specimens of Mr. E. G. Caldwell's
art. My thanks are due to Messrs. G. M. and A. C.
Gathorne-Hardy for placing at my disposal a number
of their excellent photographs as well as for much other
help ; and I have also to thank Mr. R. G. Rendell, Mr.
F. W. Ross, Captain E. G. Wynyard, D.S.O., and
the Moravian Missionary Society for some of the
photographs.

Finally I must cordially express my gratitude to Mr.
F. C. Selous for the " Foreword " which he has written
for these pages and for the kindness and help that I
have always received from him.

H. HESKETH PRICHARD.

PRAE WOOD, ST. ALBANS.
June 1st, 1910.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA I

II. HUNTING-DAYS IN THE CORDILLERA OF THE ANDES 27

III. ON THE LABRADOR 54

IV. A FALL HUNTING TRIP IN NEWFOUNDLAND 80

V. OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER HUNTING NEAR MIDDLE

RIDGE 115

VI. AN ELK-HUNTING SEASON IN NORWAY 149

VII. MOOSE HUNTING AND MOOSE CALLING IN CANADA 178

VIII. A SEPTEMBER TRIP UP THE GANDER, NEWFOUNDLAND 203

IX. CARIBOU-HUNTING IN TIMBER AND BRULEE 230

X. FURTHER DAYS AFTER MAINLAND CARIBOU 257

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

H. HESKETH PRICHARD Frontispiece

TO FACE PAGE

EVENING ON THE PAMPA — THE SENTINEL GUANACO 4

A PATAGONIAN " ESTANCIA " 8

ON THE RIO SANTA CRUZ 8

A CANADON 12
A CHANCE MEETING WITH ITALIAN ENGINEERS ON

THE PAMPA 12

HUNTING THE GUANACO 2O

" MY HORSE BECAME UNMANAGEABLE " (Coloured) 22

" SAW AT THE EDGE OF A HUGE RIFT . . .

A GUEMAL BUCK AND DOE " 34

THE AUTHOR'S COLLECTION OF GUEMAL HEADS 36

PATAGONIAN GUEMAL (Coloured) 38

THE SHORE OF PUNTA BANDERA 42

A COLD DAY ON LAGO ARGENTINO 42

ESKIMOS LANDING FISH AT HOPEDALE 54
STUART COTTER AND MONTAGNAIS INDIANS AT

H. B. CO.'S POST, DAVIS INLET 54
MRS. BROOMFIELD, OF CARBONEAR, NEWFOUND-
LAND, AND JACK LANE'S BAY, LABRADOR 58

SAMUEL BROOMFIELD, A LABRADOR TRAPPER 58

THE AUTHOR IN A KAYAK 62

THE TRAPBOAT IN JACK LANE'S BAY 62

HEATHEN ESKIMO, NORTHERN LABRADOR 68

MIDNIGHT VISITORS 70

HOPEDALE IN WINTER 74

xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

TO FACE PAGE

MAKKOVIK, THE MOST SOUTHERLY MORAVIAN

STATION IN LABRADOR 74

LORD OF THE BARRENS (Coloured) 80

AS HE LAY. OCT. 30, 1903 86

SPYING 92

CARIBOU STAG SHOT OCT. 28, 1903 98

HEAD OF CARIBOU SHOT OCT. 30, 1903 Io8

GEORGE ARNOLD 112

JACK WELLS "PACKING" A CARIBOU HEAD TO CAMP 112

TERRA NOVA FALLS Il6

MEASURING THEIR STRENGTH I2O
A BEAVER-DAM NEAR THE GANDER RIVER,

CENTRAL NEWFOUNDLAND 124
STONY GROUND ON THE NORTH SHORE OF TERRA

NOVA LAKE 128

A TYPICAL NEWFOUNDLAND " DROGUE " 128

THE CROSSING PLACE (Coloured) 138

PACKING THROUGH NEWFOUNDLAND 146

THE END OF THE TRIP 146

OUR QUARTERS AT NAMDALEN 152
PEDER AND BISMARCK OUTSIDE THE ELSTAD

SAETER 152

"THE BULL-ELK BLUNDERED FROM SHADOW TO

SHADOW" 156

THE VALLEY OF THE NAMSEN l6o

THE FISKUM FOS 164

NORWEGIAN ELK (Cokwed) 170

KRISTIAN'S FAMOUS ELK-HOUND IN HUNTING

HARNESS 176

"WINTER'S MEAT" 176

OUR QUARTERS AT DEP6T LAKE 178

A ONE-MAN CAMP 178

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

TO FACE PAGE

GUIDE PACKING A MOOSE HEAD SHOT BY G. M.

GATHORNE-HARDY 184

ED. ADKINS WITH BIRCHBARK HORN 184

"JACKING" A MOOSE 186

HEAD OF MOOSE SHOT OCT., IQoS I92

ELK SHOT ELSTAD GROUND, SEPT., 1905 IQ2

BULL MOOSE COMING IN TO A CALL 198

LAUNCHING THE CANOES 204

A. c. GATHORNE-HARDY'S CAMP ON THE GANDER,

SEPT. 22, 1906 204

MICMAC WIGWAM NEAR COOPER'S BROOK 2IO

THE CHIEF OF THE MICMACS 2IO

CARIBOU ON THE GANDER 212

MIGWELL'S BROOK — AN AFFLUENT OF THE GANDER 214
FAMOUS CARIBOU HEAD IN THE POSSESSION OF

THE REID FAMILY 224
49-POINT HEAD PICKED UP NEAR GANDER RIVER,

SEPT., 1906 224

ROBERT SAUNDERS, DOYEN OF NEWFOUNDLAND

GUIDES 228

HEAD OF 36-POINT CARIBOU SHOT BY A. C.

GATHORNE-HARDY NEAR THE GANDER RIVER,

SEPT., 1906 228

GOOD MOOSE GROUND 236

VIEW OF BRULEE FROM THE FIRST LOOK-OUT 236

" BUILT A LARGE FIRE . . . ROUND WHICH WE

CROUCHED TILL DAWN " 242

THE BUCKBOARD IN DIFFICULTIES 244

HOOFS OF MAINLAND AND NEWFOUNDLAND

CARIBOU STAGS, SHOWING LARGER SIZE OF THE

FORMER 254

HORNS OF CARIBOU SHOT OCT., 1907, IN EASTERN

CANADA 254

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

TO FACE PAGE

THE END OF THE LAKE 256

THE LAST CAMP OF THE YEAR 256

MOOSE (Coloured) 260

"BIG TOPS," SHOT SEPT., 1908 262
HEAD OF SECOND CARIBOU STAG SHOT SEPT.,

1908 262

"THE STAG ADVANCED SLOWLY FROM THE TREES " 266

CHARLIE WITH BUCKBOARD AND TROPHIES 268

HOMEWARD BOUND 268

CHAPTER I.

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGOXIA.

PERHAPS the chief charm of Patagonia lies in its
absolute unlikeness to any other land north or south.
The plains, rising in vast terraces across the continent
from the low coasts on the east to the mountain ranges
on the west show grass, on all sides grass as far as the
eye can reach. Not green inviting grass, but yellowish,
harsh and prickly, which leaves spines sticking into the
fingers. All vegetation other than the grass is dwarf,
stunted by the unceasing winds which sweep over the
open country. Leagues upon leagues of califatt, thorn,
no higher than a man's waist, broken now and again by
pebbly patches sparsely set with mate negra, innumer-
able pools and huge tracts of glacial detritus are all
undergrown and overflown and surrounded by this sea
of grass. ... It forms a very desolate and forbidding
landscape, yet it is one which lays a strong hold on the
imagination and the memory ; once you have ridden
across those lonely plains, you often feel a desire which
sometimes amounts to a craving to go back and ride
across them again. The feeling brings to mind the
story told in the ancient chronicles of Magellan, who
decoyed on board his ship a Tehuelche Indian, one of
that race whose " huge footsteps " the Spaniards found
and marvelled at when first they touched upon the
Patagonian sands. The prisoner was destined to be
presented as a gift to the King of Spain by his great

H.C. B

2 HUNTING CAMPS.

sea-captain, but the ship had hardly lost sight of the
coast when the poor savage pined and died. Had he
survived one is apt to wonder what would have been
his outlook upon Spain. Belonging to a primitive
people, few in number, bred in a land of limitless soli-
tudes, how would he have faced the populous cities, the
varied magnificence that waited for him across the sea ?
The contrasts must surely have cowed and overwhelmed
him. The traveller in Patagonia to-day undergoes the
inverse experiences. As soon as he leaves behind him
one or other of the little settlements, he finds himself
in circle after circle of flat and arid regions, and whether
on foot or in the saddle, seems to be himself always the
highest point between the horizons.

The fauna of Patagonia are as distinctive as the
scenes they inhabit. In the course of a spring, summer,
and autumn it was impossible to gain adequate
experience of more than a limited portion of the
immense area of Southern Argentina. My course lay
in the land of the Tehuelches, south of the 40th parallel
of latitude, between the Rio Deseado and the Straits of
Magellan, and there the pampas offered wide and in
many places absolutely virgin hunting-grounds, over
which roamed herds of guanaco, as well as of wild cattle,
two sub-species of puma, the cavy or Patagonian hare
(Dolichotis patagonica), and everywhere over the plains
the common grey fox or hoary dog was to be found in
almost inconceivable numbers. I was too far south to
touch the range of the jaguar, which is said to be
marked by the Rio Negro, north of which river I never
hunted.

The grey fox, although not an animal of actual
interest to the sportsman, cannot, however, be ignored,

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 3

for he is an intolerable nuisance, gnawing through the
sogas of the horses and thieving in so inveterate a fashion,
that hardly a camp can be made without its occupants
paying toll of their belongings to his tribe. Nothing
escapes the fox's voracious appetite ; a raw hide, a
saddle, natural history specimens even when cured with
arsenical soap, all if left within reach of a fox's leap are
pulled down and devoured.

But as numerous as the foxes, and far more apparent
to the traveller's eye, are the guanaco. The herds of
this strange animal are distributed over the whole area
of the pampas, and though infinitely more plentiful in
certain favoured districts, such as the vast tablelands to
the south-west of Lago Buenos Aires, are to be met
with in greater or less numbers in almost every part.
Exactly as the caribou upon the same degree of latitude
north, so is the guanaco to the south, the prop of life to
the nomadic tribes. The guanaco do not, however,
migrate en masse ; they only move in the case of isolated
herds from their summer haunts on the high tablelands
to winter in the river valleys or about the shores of the
lakes.

If the sporting qualities of an animal are to be judged
along the usual lines, the guanaco must take high place.
This somewhat dogmatic statement presupposes that
the hunter's ideal is a chase hi which he can see his
quarry in the open, can match his intelligence against
its instinct, and win or lose the day on his merits.
Beyond this, again, there is the definition of Mr. Bromley
Davenport concerning the real and the artificial in sport,
by which he defines the real as "the pursuit of the
perfectly wild animal on its own primaeval and ancestral
ground, as yet unannexed and unappropriated in any

B 2

4 HUNTING CAMPS.

shape or way by man ; where, therefore, no permission
can be asked, granted, or refused ; where the wild
illimitable expanse is free to all, human or animal, and
the first come is the first served." In its Patagonian
environment the guanaco fulfils this ideal. There are as
yet no ring-fences and but little barbed wire in the
interior, where indeed the hunter may ride for weeks,
and even months, and perhaps never see anything save
the landscape and the game upon it.

Of course the guanaco lacks one, and that the most
important of the desiderata of a quarry — he carries no
trophy. The black face and the scarred neck of one
old fighting buck is very like that of another, so that
after the hunter has shot three or four, he has before
him no alluring prospect, such as the chance of securing
a particularly fine or unusual specimen, a hope which,
in the case of horned game, serves to keep his interest
always at high-water mark. But, despite this fact, the
chase of the guanaco and the fair stalking of a big
buck sometimes presents difficulties which can be relied
on to keep the hunter's enthusiasm well awake.

Those who have seen the animal as he appears on
the farms near the coast can form no idea of the
wariness of his brethren in such spots as the canadon*
of the Senguerr River. Close to the coast the con-
siderable number of guanaco that inhabit the allotted
lands are little molested by the shepherds who come
and go among them, for it is certain that while a man
can procure mutton he will never hanker after the dry
and stringy meat provided by the wild animal. From
time to time, when the herds of the latter grow too
numerous, a campaign is organised against them, but

* Valley.

=

:-

X

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 5

the lesson learned in the three or four days of war
soon passes away, so that during the greater part of the
year they remain comparatively tame and accessible.
But in the canadon of the Senguerr, through which I
travelled in October, it was impossible to approach
openly within a mile of any animal. It is here that
the Tehuelche Indians have erected their permanent
toldos, and as they habitually hunt on horseback and
with hounds, generally converging upon the herds in
circles and from all points of the compass, the guanaco
of that region has learned the art of sen-preservation
in all its details. His long neck and his habit of
invariably upon the approach of danger seeking and
keeping to the highest ground in sight, his sense of
hearing, which is exceedingly well developed, and his
nose that is only inferior to his powers of vision, make
him a most difficult and sporting quarry.

There are further one or two other small points
which add their quota of hindrance to the chances of
an easy success. The fact that almost every acre of
ground carries its crop of low thorn bushes — and even
when these are absent the sharp blades of the harsh
grass can make a very painful wound — renders stalking
a task not altogether without its discomforts. That
cover is represented only by the walls of canadones,
an occasional hummock or little patches of mate negro.
hardly eighteen inches high, is also all in favour of the
guanaco's side of the game. When to these things
is added the fact that a guanaco can carry away as
much lead as almost any animal of its size, it will be
seen that the sportsman may spend many fruitless
hours before he can succeed in attaining any great
success in this particular form of pastime.

6 HUNTING CAMPS.

But it so happened that when I was travelling in
this region the shooting of guanaco was by no means a
pastime. We were a party of eight, and beyond the
emergency rations which we carried to ensure us
against the chance of crossing a gameless tract, we had
nothing save a small allowance of flour between us and
hunger. Besides this, I wished to shoot half-a-dozen
old bucks, or machos as they are termed in that
country, for my collection. Our travels were carried
out on horseback, and at this period our advance was
a good deal hindered by the continual straying during
the night time of one or many of our troop of horses.
The time spent by the gauchos in tracking and recover-
ing these often left me many hours to spare for sport,
and day by day I learned more and more to respect the
intelligence of the guanaco. The experience of a typical
day may perhaps be of interest.

It is sunrise, and I have just discovered that out of
our sixty horses only forty-six remain to us ; the rest
have strayed in the night and may be anywhere within
three or four leagues, as the tracks give ample evidence
that the madrina, or brood mare, which the horses of
each tropilla are trained to follow, has broken her
hobbles and gone off eastward at a trot. A couple of
gauchos will start immediately to track them, while
there is plenty of work for the rest of the party in
camp, where a number of new maletas or packs have to
be fashioned to replace those that hard usage and the
exigencies of travel have worn out. A few skins are
very necessary for this work, and so it is with the
prospect of a threefold use for any guanaco I can shoot
that I set out. We need the meat to eat, the skins to
make packs for a part of our outfit, and I am eager to

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 7

obtain a skin or two as the animals approach their
summer pelage.

Soon the camp is left behind and, looking back on it,
the fact strikes me that it presents a picture very unlike
the idea of a camp which is prevalent in any other
countries which I have visited. A mere pile of baggage,
an open fire and the blankets and bedding airing in the
morning sun, a troop of horses feeding in the marshes
by the river, and on all sides the low cliffs of the valley
shutting in the horizon. Turning my back upon camp,
I ride out with thirteen clear hours before me. The
country is quite new to me, and apart from the fact
that the river gives no hint of a ford by which to cross
it, the nature of the ground on the southern bank
looks more favourable for my purpose. As I ride
slowly along, I put up a brace of upland geese from the
bed of the stream, and soon after I perceive a game-
track leading along the side of the canadon ; up this my
horse climbs until I find myself upon a broad and stony
tableland, which stretches to the verge of sight. Save
in one direction, it seems to be absolutely level, but on
its south-western edge rise a few low rolling hummocks
that look more promising than the rest of its arid
flatness. Towards these I make my way, and during
the course of my ride, which occupies nearly an hour, I
see nothing but a single chimango hawk that circles in
the air above me and finally flies off in the direction
of the river.

On approaching the ridge of hummocks, I see that
they lie upon the other side of a cleft in the plain, a
canadon full of coarse grass and scrub growing about a
dry river-bed. The sides are very precipitous, but that
is a small matter to the Patagonian horse, who, provided

8 HUNTING CAMPS.

he be not asked to jump anything, will carry his rider
in safety across almost any natural obstacle that may
arise. The horse I am riding to-day is known as the
cruzado, so called because of the cross markings he
shows, his near hind leg and the off fore each bearing a
white stocking. He is one of the three horses out of
the large number I had to do with in Patagonia that
could be trusted to fulfil all the requirements of a good
shooting horse. Having dismounted, I drop the reins
over the cruzado's head, and prepare to leave him with
an easy mind, for I know that even if I do not return
for hours, he will inevitably remain quietly within a
hundred yards of the same spot. In a country of vast
distances this is a very useful acquirement, as few situa-
tions can be more trying than that of a hunter, who
having dismounted for a stalk, returns from it to see his
horse disappearing in the distance, stirrups swinging and
reins flying, towards the camp, which is perhaps ten or
fifteen miles away.

No sooner have I reached the bottom of the cleft, than
1 see three ostriches, as Darwin's rhea is locally called.
They have long since spied me and are already nearly
half a mile away. Suddenly they turn and run up the
steep cliff of the canadon ; are silhouetted for a moment
against the blue sky before they disappear over the edge
of sight. These ostriches, to continue the Patagonian
name, are without exception the wildest and most
difficult quarry against which I have ever matched the
modern long-range rifle. I have heard it stated as a
fact that there is no animal whatever which can, in any
way, compare in quickness of sight with certain birds.
I have believed this from very early days when I used
to stalk curlew among sand dunes with a rifle. I had

A Patagonian "Estancia.

On the Rio Santa Cruz.

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 9

but to show a couple of inches of cap, and even if it
were motionless, the birds noticed it at once and were
off. The ostriches possess the same extraordinary
certainty of vision. Added to which they seem to be
devoid of the smallest particle of curiosity, a quality
which is often the hunter's best ally. I have seen them
run on my appearance while they were still on the
furthest verge of sight. There is not much to shoot at
in an ostrich, and one's chances are generally obtained at
fairly long range ; certainly I fired at very many more of
the birds than came to bag. An ostrich when hit through
the body, however severely, almost invariably makes a
short rush of from fifty to one hundred yards before falling
dead. During the eight months spent in the country
frequented by ostriches and seeing birds on an average
at least once a day, and often attempting to get within
shot, I secured only twenty-four, and of these I rode down
eight with dogs, leaving a total of but sixteen to the rifle.

As was to be expected, I am not destined to get a
shot at the three birds that had escaped out of the
canadon, for though I follow them to the point where I
had seen them disappear, it is only to find they have
vanished altogether among the ridges of the hummocks
which had attracted me from the riverbank. Some of
these hummocks are covered with grass at the base, but
nearly all of them run up into hard, bare, sun-baked
earth towards their summits.

I leave the cruzado to feed while I scramble to the
top of the nearest hummock, and I almost immediately
become aware that my horse's movements are being
watched by an animal that can only be a guanaco buck.
It stands at gaze about six hundred yards from me, but so
far has not seen me against the hillside, for I have not yet

10 HUNTING CAMPS.

reached the summit-line. As I see no chance of getting
nearer, I lie down and consider the position. The
guanaco stands directly facing me, and was evidently in
the act of descending a hollow between two of the small
hills when his suspicions were aroused. I soon find
him with my telescope to be as I expected a very large
dark-faced buck, and seeing that he is on the alert I
have just picked up my rifle when another buck walks
over a ridge within seventy yards on my right. I quickly
get the sights in a line with the last comer's shoulder
and pull the trigger. He at once makes off at a gallop,
giving no sign whatever of being hit, but my second
bullet cuts him down. Then I turn my attention to
the first guanaco and find that he has climbed to the
higher of the two summits above him, where he pauses
for a moment broadside on, clearly outlined against the
sky. I fire, but my bullet falls short, knocking up a
spurt of sand beneath his body. The old buck gives me
no second chance, but vanishes in a twinkling over the
brow of the hummock.

Walking down to the guanaco I have killed, I soon
satisfy myself that the first shot had taken effect, as
well as the second, and that either would have proved
fatal. After gralloching the animal, I collect dry thorns
and grass and light a fire, in the hope that the smoke
may be observed by one of my gauchos, who would in
that case instantly ride it down. Even had I not left
orders to that effect at the camp, they would not fail
to ride down a smoke, for the gaucho's most strongly
marked characteristic is curiosity ; he loves to meet his
kind and to hear the news which in the wide solitude
of such countries passes from mouth to mouth. It was
in this way that the intelligence of Queen Victoria's

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 11

death travelled through the far interior of Patagonia in
an astonishingly short space of time.

Sometimes, however, as might be expected, pampa
news is not very reliable, as, for example, when -in the
year above alluded to, a report came up from the coast
that the Russians had invaded India and the French
were in London. This rumour may or may not have
been traceable to a couple of prospectors, who, having
fought under Villebois de Mareuil in South Africa and
been wounded there, afterwards took ship in one of the
returning horse-boats to Buenos Aires, from whence
they had drifted down into Patagonia.

I cut up the guanaco and place it as far as circum-
stances will permit beyond the reach of the ubiquitous
foxes, and then, retracing my steps to the cruzado, I
mount and resume my search for game. In this I am
almost immediately successful, for as I round the last
of the hummocks, I notice a cavy springing across a
dry lagoon. He has not seen me and in a second I am
out of the saddle. The cavy is a curious animal not
unlike an English hare, but twice as large ; its method of
progression, however, is rather that of the kangaroo.
As the cavy approaches the further side of the lagoon,
he stops and sits up on his hind legs, his small and
delicate fore-paws looking strangely out of proportion.
For once the cover is good, for there is near me a patch
of dry, white thorn reaching to within fifty yards of the
edge of the mud lagoon. On my left hand I slip a kind
of rough, fingerless glove made of skin, which is a great
protection, and crawl up under the thorn bushes.
Peering round them, I see the cavy is still sitting at
about a hundred yards' distance. I slip a solid bullet
instead of the soft-nosed one into my rifle and shoot the

12 HUNTING CAMPS.

cavy through the shoulders. He turns out to be rather
a large male, weighing, as far as I can judge, about
19 Ibs. Very pleased at my good fortune, for the cavy
is excellent eating, I tie him to the back of my saddle
and proceed upon my way.

For two or three hours I ride, sometimes across bare
tablelands, sometimes through canadones, without any
sight of game. Not that the country is absolutely
barren of life, for foxes are lying in the thickets, and
scavenger birds, chimangos and coranchos, drowse in
the noonday heat upon the low bush, but of guanaco I
see no sign. The sun climbs higher and higher, the
wind still blows with the steady roar that has continued
with rare intervals through the months 1 have spent
in Patagonia and is destined to continue through the
months I am yet to spend there. The cruzado is a
first-rate walker, my country saddle of rugs and skins is
exceedingly comfortable, the circle of sight is always
enlarging, or I should rather say changing, mirages,
sketched as it were in black and blue pen-strokes,
flicker and fade on the horizon, taking now the shape of
a reflected landscape, again that of a solitary rider —
myself.

At length, I come to a caiiadon deeper and wider
than any I have yet seen, the grass in it is green marsh-
grass, and a narrow stream of water trickles through it.
I ride down into the valley and off saddle, place my
horse-rugs to dry, rub down the cruzado and turn him
loose to graze. Then I go to my saddle-bags and make
a far from cheering discovery. 1 have forgotten to
bring any lunch, and six hours in that upland air have
made me very hungry. I am just debating with myself
the choice between no lunch and a hastily-cooked

A Canadon.

A Chance Meeting with Italian Engineers on the Pampa.

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 13

hindquarter of cavy, when down the stream I hear
the honk of geese. I catch the cruzado, slip on his
bridle, throw a rug over him and ride off to find the
birds. Round the first bend I come in sight of them,
two ganders with white backs and grey breasts, two
brown females with their chestnut heads — upland geese.
The stalk is easy enough, the Patagonian goose not
having learned the wisdom his congeners acquire in other
regions of the earth, so I get within eighty yards. I pick
the nearer of the brown females as she will be tenderer,
put in a solid bullet, take a fine sight and — miss her
handsomely. The geese rise and swing off down stream.

Regretfully, I retrace my steps, build a little fire, and
cutting off part of the cavy's hindquarter prepare a
roast, skewer it camp-fashion upon sticks which I drive
into the ground opposite the hottest part of the fire,
While I wait for it to cook, I fall asleep, which does not
very much matter, as the cruzado will be all the fresher
for a two-hours' off saddle. At length the roast is
cooked and eaten, the two hours of rest gone, and I am
once more in the saddle.

I now begin to bear northwards, as I want to strike
the valley of the Senguerr River, which lies as far as I
can judge about eight or nine miles off in that direction.
In Patagonia no one uses the word mile, the distances
are so great that all reckoning is counted in leagues ;
ten leagues is held to be a good day's journey with pack-
horses. Smaller distances are designated as parts or
fractions of a league, a habit curiously at variance with
that common in Lower Canada, where the settler or
trapper will often define his position by saying, " I was
within two acres of the outlet of the lake." But then
farmland, even in vast Canada, is reckoned by the acre,

14 HUNTING CAMPS.

whereas in sterile Patagonia no farmer could make a
living on less than five square leagues.

The landscape through which I ride in the afternoon
is much the same as that I had passed over in the
morning, and it is not until I again come in sight of
the river that I see any game. As I descend the
barranca cliff of the canadon, I discover a herd of eight
guanaco on the top of the cliff on the opposite bank ;
they are a long way off, but are sharply visible against
the sky. I am just wondering whether they are worth
a swim across the stream, which is not very wide, when
suddenly two other guanaco appear on my side of the
water. As I am about to dismount, they gallop wildly,
with the extraordinary galvanic contortions peculiar to
these creatures when descending a steep place, down the
barranca and out into the marsh grass by the river. I
now see a chance of cutting them off, as in front of them
the river turns in a loop ; my horse is comparatively fresh,
and I am on hard ground, as I think.

The cruzado enters into the spirit of the game, and in
an instant we are flying along the cliff. The guanacos
start at the same moment and make off straight down
the valley. Inside half a mile they will be stopped by
the loop of the river, when they must either plunge into
the water or break back and cross my front at close
range. They travel three parts of the distance before
they perceive the trap, then double instantly and break
back. I have but three hundred yards to go, they have
a similar distance. I shall have time to dismount and
get a steady shot as they cross broadside. My eyes are
fixed on the leading buck, a big, black-faced fellow ;
the cruzado has seen them too, and knows exactly what
is expected of him. He has a turn for speed and my

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGOXIA. 15

little trick seems likely to succeed, when I suddenly find
myself first in the air and next in a calif ate bush ; indeed
for a second or so, I am not sure where I am. Then I
crawl out with a bleeding nose, but no more serious
damage, to find the cruzado, looking curiously fore-
shortened, still struggling to extricate himself from a
pit of soft, whitish clay, into which his front legs have
sunk to the shoulders. Meantime the guanaco have
bounded past, up the barranca and out of sight.

After clearing the cruzado and myself as well as I
can from the marks of the adhesive clay and — a much
more lengthy proceeding — freeing the barrel of my rifle
from mud and slime, I notice that it is growing late and
turn towards camp. Both my horse and I have been
considerably sobered by the rather crumpling fall, and
now jog along at a pace which precludes the likelihood
of further mishaps. For a couple of miles we travel
thus quietly upon our way, flushing a large number of
snipe and two or three companies of Chilian widgeon ;
then, leaving the river, I once more ride up the barranca
to spy the tableland.

It is a fortunate move, for while I am still fifty
feet from the top, I hear the challenging neigh of a
guanaco buck. I leap off, pull the reins over the
cruzado's head, and see that thoroughly reliable animal
at once turn his attention to tearing up mouthfuls of
grass. Sure that, notwithstanding his uncomfortable
position upon a hillside sloping some thirty degrees, he
will not move many paces away until I return, I creep
upwards until I can look over the edge of the cliff.
About three hundred yards ahead a herd of some thirty
guanaco are standing. The wind, though it might be more
favourable, will probably serve, and the guanaco are now

16 HUNTING CAMPS.

moving away across the mesa. I run along under the
cliff to a bush, which I have marked as the handiest ;
when 1 reach it I slowly raise my head to reconnoitre.
The guanaco are grouped together about two hundred
yards off. I pick out a good buck standing alone ; a yeld
doe would be better for my purpose, but I never could
bring myself to shoot at one as long as there was a buck
to take its place, and after waiting a moment to get my
breath, I press the trigger. The buck gives a convulsive
start and dashes forward as an animal often will when
shot through the heart.

Knowing he will need no second bullet, I transfer my
attention to the rest. At first, not having located the
shot, they bunch together in alarm, and then one breaks
away on the left. As soon as he is clear, I swing my
sight on to him but do not fire, for I recollect that it is
already late in the afternoon, and by morning the foxes
will have spoilt the meat, for I cannot carry more than
one animal to camp. The herd break in all directions,
a yearling and a doe come straight at me, I rise and
they swerve, a buck crashes down the barranca within
fifty yards, the remainder of the herd are scattered to
the four winds, leaving me to reflect on having once
more proved the truth of the Greek saying, that
" to-day the gods are with the hunted, to-morrow with
the hunter."

By the time I have cut up the dead buck, the
evening is beginning to draw on. I make an unsightly
but eminently welcome pack of the meat and skin
which the cruzado permits me to cargo up, and then we
set out determinedly for camp. On our way there, no
events of any interest occur, and it is just turning dusk
when, rounding a scarp of the barranca, I see the smoke

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 17

of the camp-fire, and between it and me a little troop
of six horses with the black mare, which I learn later
that the gauchos have found a dozen miles away up the
back trail.

From the description given above it will be seen that
although the pampas possess no animal that carries a
trophy, yet a day spent upon them with the rifle is
capable of yielding excellent sport, a fact perhaps
enhanced by the knowledge that so far very few
sportsmen have visited them. Indeed, with the
exception of Captain Chaworth Musters, of the Royal
Navy, who in 1876 roamed all over the south of
Patagonia in company with a tribe of Tehuelches, it
would seem that this region is one of the rare parts of
the earth to which the British sportsman has not been
attracted. The voyage is long and the fauna do not
present any great variety, yet guanaco, wild cattle,
ostriches, and pumas exist upon its pampas hi vast
numbers. Having described a day with the rifle alone,
it will be well to turn to an even more exhilarating method
of hunting pampa game, that is with horse and hound.

Before leaving Buenos Aires I had purchased a fawn-
coloured hound, an imposing-looking creature, big
enough and fast enough, one would have thought, to pull
down any macho, however large or strong. This hound,
Tom, accompanied me on the greater part of my journey,
and, in spite of some shortcomings, was considerably the
most distinguished of our pack. For as time went on
various dogs joined the camp, Bian, a big lurcher belong-
ing to one of my Welsh peones ; Chichi, a smaller animal,
that was handed over to me because her sore feet made
her useless to her master, who was travelling fast ; and
a large black greyhound which I procured later.

H.C. C

18 HUNTING CAMPS.

Some of the finest runs I enjoyed came in the neigh-
bourhood of Lake Buenos Aires, which lies in the very
heart of Patagonia, when Tom and Chichi were the
only dogs on whom I could rely. The very first
guanaco that Tom had experience of was a very old
buck at which I obtained a shot but struck too far
back. I at once slipped Tom, who ran into the guanaco
within three hundred yards, when the animal fell dying.
Tom was much elated, and obviously placed the death
of the guanaco to his own sole credit, with the result
that as we were riding back to camp he went off in
chase of a second buck. This time, notwithstanding
an excellent start, he had a much longer run, but at
length came upon terms with his quarry, when the
guanaco knocked him backwards with a tremendous
and well-aimed kick on the head. Tom was young,
and, though he was always ready thereafter to chase
guanaco, it was some months before he got over his
experience, but invariably ran cunning, leaving first
hold to the other dogs. In spite of this he was of
immense use, for in a few bounds he would leave the
lurchers and cross-breeds far behind and would quickly
turn the quarry.

One afternoon, having made an early camp, I caught
a fresh horse, the zaino or brown, a considerably smaller
animal than the cruzado and equally useful for shooting,
having in addition a turn for speed that was quite
remarkable. He was, however, only just up to my
weight, and consequently was not ridden except for
half-days, and had about the easiest time of any in
the troop. He had, of course, his peculiarities, one of
which was that in no circumstances could he be
persuaded to carry a pack ; he would buck, throw

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 19

himself backwards and roll until we gave up the effort
in despair. Nor did he like anybody to touch him but
myself. With me, however, not only was he perfectly
free from vice, but absolutely reliable. I was exceed-
ingly sorry to part with him when I left Patagonia, but
I left him in good hands.

When the zaino was saddled it was almost half-past
four o'clock. The district which lay to the south-east of
Lago Buenos Aires was one through which few men, if
any, had ever passed, and owing to its proximity to
the cordillera, which shielded it from the continuous
westerly winds and gales, the bushes of califate,
incensio, and mate negra were dense and often five
or six feet in height. The immediate object of my
ride was the usual one — meat for food.

Tom and Chichi went with me, and we had not gone
far when, passing over a hill, we roused a herd of some
dozen guanacos, that came bounding out from the
margin of a pond where they had been feeding or lying.
The dogs immediately gave chase, Tom leading and
characteristically devoting his attention to a yearling,
which he soon headed. The rest of the herd dashed
away in another direction, and the yearling was pulled
down by Tom almost without any help from Chichi.
As the kill was so near camp I rode back with news of
it, and, leaving one of the peones to butcher and cany
back the meat, continued my ride.

It was Chichi's first hunt since her feet had been
cured, but it was easy to see that she was a high-spirited
little hound, and very manifestly Tom ran better and
more pluckily with her than with any of his former
mates. I at once resolved that if I could I would lay
the dogs on an old buck, if it were only to see whether

c 2

20 HUNTING CAMPS.

Tom had at last forgotten that stunning kick that he
received in the canadon six hundred miles away.

I therefore returned to follow the herd, amongst
which I had remarked a couple of good bucks ; but as
luck would have it there was no need to ride so far, for
at no great distance, as I paused on a ridge to have a
look round with my telescope, I perceived a fine old
warrior all alone and lying down in the grass beside a
pond very similar to that from which I had sprung the
herd some time earlier. This guanaco was at least a
mile distant, but I saw that by riding under cover of a
range of hillocks I could approach within four hundred
yards of him. Four hundred yards is, however, a long
start for a guanaco buck, and the chances were that unless
I could get the dogs nearer he would show them a
clean pair of heels. For the moment there was nothing
to be done but to make a first approach, which I did
under the lee of the friendly line of hillocks, and arrived
without difficulty opposite the pond beside which I had
seen the guanaco lying.

There I dismounted, tied up the hounds, and crawled
over the edge of a hummock to reconnoitre. The buck
was still resting with his legs tucked in under him.
The sun, though low in the sky, was shining with a
bright yellow glow, and through the glass I was able to
get an admirable view of the animal. He certainly
appeared to be one of the largest and blackest and
shaggiest I had met with, in fact just the animal for
my purpose, but how to get sufficiently near to him
seemed a difficult problem. Next I took stock of his
position. He was lying almost opposite the middle of
the pond, which, being larger than I had imagined,
stretched a couple of hundred yards on either side of

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 21

him. It seemed, as far as I could judge, to be deep.
As to the chances of approach, I now saw some large
blocks of glacial detritus which covered the ground that
lay between me and the guanaco. My only plan
seemed to be to bring the hounds up under cover of
these — in fact, to manage a stalk, taking the hounds with
me ! By this means I hoped to get them within one
hundred and fifty yards, but in the meantime must leave
my horse, for which it would be necessary to return later.

When I reached the dogs, I found that Chichi had
gnawed through the cabresto with which I had tied her
up, but had fortunately remained near the horse instead
of following me. Having led the zaino as far as the
cover would permit, I fastened the hide rope to the
dogs' collars and commenced my stalk. A crouching
position took me to the first and largest rock, but my
next objective was a stone not four feet high. More-
over, Tom and Chichi did not understand stalking at
all, and as soon as I went down on hands and knees
they began to pull away from me. At length, by
assuming the historical attitude of the great enemy of
mankind, I arrived at the flat stone and found myself
within two hundred yards of the buck, which continued to
rest entirely undisturbed. I now noticed for the first time
that the buck was lying about the centre of a narrow
peninsula that jutted out for some little distance into
the pond. It, therefore, seemed likely that if the water
was as deep as it looked to be the guanaco would be
forced to break back, in which case when the chase
fairly began the dogs would start within one hundred
and fifty yards of him.

After a moment's rest, taken to relieve the cramps hi
my arms and legs, I slipped both dogs and ran out at

22 HUNTING CAMPS.

the top of my speed towards the guanaco. As he
leaped up the dogs saw him and got a splendid start.
The buck made off along the lake-shore to the right,
and, waiting for no more, I ran for my horse. By the
time I had mounted the chase had disappeared, but,
galloping to the summit of the incline, I almost ran
into the guanaco, who was coming round in a circle.
He was travelling at high speed and quite holding his
own with Tom. The double he made to evade me
brought the dogs within fifty yards of him, and I,
pressing my horse, was soon not much behind them.
For the first half-mile the ground was so blind with
dense scrub that it was all in favour of the buck, but
presently leaving this we passed out on to the long,
rolling, open pampa, where Tom began to gain, and,
taking the ground magnificently, closed in on the
guanaco, passing him and snapping at his throat. The
buck swerved, and Chichi, taking advantage of the
movement, seized a flank, throwing the buck off his
balance, when Tom went in and caught him by the
throat. The guanaco at bay can, however, be a nasty
antagonist for hounds, so pulling up I finished the
affair with a shot.

After this encounter with the buck Tom improved in
every way, eventually gaining some very honourable
wounds in a combat with a Magellan wolf. I found
that long runs pressed hard on the hounds, as the thorns
and stones left them sorefooted. In fact, unless they
ran into the guanaco within the first four hundred yards,
the chase generally ended in the quarry getting clear
away, more especially if the ground was at all steep.
In running ostriches the same facts hold good, though
with the birds, if the dogs failed to obtain a fair start,

22 HUNTING CAMPS.

the top ds the guanaco. As he

he dogs saw him and got a splendid start.

uade off along the lake-shore to the right,

and, waiting for no more, I ran for my horse. By the

I had mounted the chase had disappeared, but,

^ to the summit of the 1 almost ran

into the guanaco, who was i in a circle.

He was travelling at high and quite holding his

own with Tom. , The double he made to evade me

brought the dogs wi >f him, and I,

•\ them.

For the first half-mile the ground with

rub that it was all in favour of the buck, but

y leaving this we passed out on to the long,

g, open pampa, where Tom began to gain, and,

i .he ground magnificently, closed in on the

.g him and The

by the
;, be a i
up I finished the

ster with the buck Tom improved in
eventually gaining some very honourable
wounds in a combat with a Magellan wolf. 1 i
that long runs pressed hard on the hounds, ;?
and left them sorefooted. In fact, unless they

ito the guanaco within the first four hundred yards,
the chase generally ended in the quart olear

awa\ ;x-ciail\ ground w teep.

In rt iches the sanu

with th-. tir start,

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 23

they gave up the pursuit of themselves. In many dis-
tricts cavies and foxes were so numerous that unless
laid on the hounds took no notice of them.

Once in the neighbourhood of the cordillera I came
across an old red wolf (Canis iiiagellanicm) and laid on
the dogs. The wolf held his ground, making no attempt
to run, and fought so gallantly that I tried to call off
the dogs — not without their scars — but before I could
make them obey one of the hounds, and also the old
wolf, had been so severely hurt that it was too late, and
he went down snarling and snapping to the last.

I have always regretted my bad luck with regard to
pumas during my time in Patagonia, for, although I
frequently heard them in the night about the camp, by
day I saw but two. One of these, a really magnificent
male, with any luck I ought to have killed, but as I
dismounted, and before I could disengage my rifle, he
galloped off.

I then tried to mount, intending to ride the puma
down, but my horse became unmanageable, and before
I could quiet him the puma disappeared into some
dense scrub, in which I failed to find him again.

Seeing pumas is largely a matter of luck, for the
stony hills and bushy country in which they abound offer
endless hiding places, of which this distinctly cowardly
animal takes full advantage. Again and again I wished
I had had half-a-dozen good terriers or mongrels with
me, for not one of the hounds or collies would take the
trail of a puma, though generally ready enough to bustle
a fox out of a thicket. With a pack of suitable dogs I
believe excellent sport might be had with pumas, though
it is certainly the poorest-spirited of all the great cats.
Captain Musters tells how an Indian will attack a puma

24 HUNTING CAMPS.

armed only with his boleadores, and this is still done at
the present day, yet, though the puma has no great
reputation as a fighter, instances have been known of
one turning savage when at bay. They are the con-
stant and inveterate enemies of the Patagonian sheep-
farmer, taking a heavy toll from the flocks, and often
killing a dozen or more animals in a single raid. They
also continually stampede the horses of travellers, a very
annoying matter, as I knew to my cost. These creatures
are very readily tamed, and are often kept as pets till
almost full-grown. One settler near Lake Argentine
lived alone with two three-quarter grown pumas
throughout the winter of 1901 in his little single-
roomed hut. A strange taste in companionship !

This chapter would not be complete without some
mention of the Tehuelche methods of hunting. In
former times the fabled Patagonian Indians hunted
on foot as do the Onas to-day in Terra del Fuego,
but since the introduction of the horse from the Aura-
canian tribes, whose country marches with that of the
Tehuelches to the north-west, the latter now always
hunt upon horseback.

The Tehuelches are a fine race, with large well-hewn
features ; their skin is of a reddish brown, but, though
they still average six feet in stature, they have noticeably
deteriorated in physique from their habit of riding on aU
occasions and everywhere. A man will not walk a
hundred yards, but catches his horse and rides the dis-
tance. As far as the upper part of the body is concerned,
the breadth of shoulder and great back and arm muscles
demand admiration, but their lower limbs are not pro-
portionately strong.

The Tehuelches, unlike most savage tribes, have never

THE PAMPAS OF PATAGONIA. 25

adopted the white man's weapons. I never saw an
Indian with a firearm, though doubtless an odd revolver
may find its way into their guanaco-skin toldos. But
for the purposes of the chase they use the boleadores,
and some of them are even so conservative as to retain
the flint knife of prehistoric times. Boleadores used for
the chase of guanaco or ostrich are loaded with balls of
solid metal or with stones. Three such missiles, each
the size of a tennis ball, one being pear-shaped, to fit
the grasp of the hand, are sewn up in raw-hide bags and
fastened at the three points of a thong like a Y, two
arms of which are some four feet in length, the third
longer. Seizing this weapon by the pear-shaped ball,
which is at the single end of the Y, the Indian hunter,
going at full gallop, whirls it round his head, letting it
fly at the neck or legs of the ostrich or the guanaco that
he may be chasing. The impact of the heavy balls will
often break the quarry's legs, or at any rate in a few
bounds or strides entangle them in such a way as to
bring it to the ground.

An organised day's hunt with the Tehuelches is an
interesting function. The cacique, or chief, arranges the
plans, having first made sure of the neighbourhood of
large herds of guanaco, which form the staple of the
game to be secured. The hunters ride off in couples,
each with a led horse in addition to the one he is riding,
and accompanied by six or eight gaunt hounds that still
betray in some degree their greyhound ancestry. They
are mostly too light to be able to pull down a full-grown
buck, but against ostriches and young guanaco they are
very serviceable.

The hunters form a huge circle, perhaps of some fifty
miles, and drive the game inwards, lighting fires on the

26 HUNTING CAMPS.

edge of the circle to mark out their positions and partly
to keep the wild animals from breaking back. As the
ring of men and fires draw in, the frightened game
crowd together in the middle of it. There may be as
many as five hundred guanaco or more, many ostriches,
and even puma. Captain Musters saw two pumas
killed in such a hunt. The guanaco bucks show spirit
and stamp and neigh defiance in front of their herds.
As soon as the Indians have approached sufficiently
near they mount their fresh horses and gallop at full
speed upon the startled game. The yells of the
hunters, the flying boleadores, the dogs and horses in
fierce pursuit after the frenzied animals, all go to make
up a scene of extraordinary excitement.

The game breaks in every direction, and the
Tehuelches follow for leagues over the wide pampa,
their nimble-footed horses covering the most difficult
ground — steep, stony slopes, or thickly-bushed levels —
with astonishing accuracy. A large quantity of game
is killed, much meat is secured, and in addition the
feathers of the ostriches. The pelts of young guanaco,
tendons, meat, etc., are all collected for their various
uses and carried back to the toldos, where a feast takes
place amid general rejoicing.

CHAPTER II.

HUNTING-DAYS IN THE CORDILLERA OF THE ANDES.

THE cordillera of the Andes is connected with some
of my earliest recollections, for my youthful knowledge
of geography was supposed to be promoted by drawing
from memory presentments of Great Britain and
Ireland, or one of the continents. The maps on the
wall were rolled up, and each small boy was left with a
sheet of paper, a black pencil and a red pencil, to pro-
duce from his inner consciousness a chart of the land to
which his fancy at the moment attracted him. On such
occasions I always, unless definitely forbidden, exercised
my ingenuity on the South American continent, which
gave scope in more ways than one to the play of the
imagination. Its contour was familiar and it was safe
to put in one river after another, running from west to
east at irregular intervals all down the map ; a fishbone
of red represented the Andes, and — here came the
touch of glamour — tucked away somewhere among
their spurs I was invariably particular to mark in two
names of old romance, the one Manoa, the other El
Dorado. I did not then guess that in years to come I
should make a close acquaintance with a part of that
continent.

I crossed and recrossed the southern portion of it
more than once, and spent many months wandering
among the foothills of the Patagonian cordillera, from
Lake Buenos Aires in the north to Lake Argentine in

v

28 HUNTING CAMPS.

the south, generally on horseback, but sometimes
penetrating deeper into the heart of the mighty range
by boat. The lower spurs of the Andes and the levels
between them are rich in game, and all through the
wide and virgin land the hunter may ride sheltered
from the incessant wind which torments the pampas,
while during the early autumn one blue and golden day
succeeds another and life is refreshing and delightful.

In the shadow of the Andes there are still vast spaces
between the towering peaks unvisited and unseen by
human eyes. There still remain blanks on the maps
that science has not as yet filled in, for few prospectors
have touched even the fringe of this region, and the
Tehuelche Indians, who are born and live, migrate,
hunt, and die within sight of the white summits, can
never be persuaded to venture within the limits of the
great forests which cling about the feet of the cordillera,
for the reason that they believe that the Gualicho, the
Spirit of Evil, has his dwelling among the mountains,
and no reward of meat or skins or shelter can tempt
them to brave his anger.

Another reason for the unbroken solitude of the
cordillera is undoubtedly the fact that the forests are
singularly devoid of life. As one passes through them
the usual sounds to be heard are the purely woodland
sounds of falling trees, the rustling of leaves, the snap
of a twig, but few calls of birds or cries of wild animals
— in fact, signs of organic life grow fewer and fewer the
further one advances into their recesses.

But about the foothills, and among the thousand
gullies and canadones that run up towards the high
bulk of the range, game abounds. Round the shores of
Lake Argentine, for example, just south of lat. 50°,

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 29

there exists a plenitude of the larger Patagonian animals.
There the distribution of the species overlaps. Guanaco
in great herds came down from the tableland near the
Manantial Peak, and in a single day's ride I saw sixty-
one ostriches (Rhea darwinii). Considerable numbers of
wild cattle roam in the forests of Mount Frias ; guemal,
the beautiful deer peculiar to the Andes, are to be
found hi the same district, while among the rocks a
quantity of pumas and Magellan wolves make their
lairs. To the north and west stretch enormous areas,
through which great herds of game wander.

I gained my first view of the Patagonian Andes
across the rough waters of Lake Buenos Aires. I had
ridden six hundred miles over the pampas, looking
forward to the time when I should at last come to the
eastern limit of the guemal deer, of which, so far as I
know, there were at that time but two specimens in
England, both presented by the Argentine Government
to the British Museum.

The huemul or guemal is the sole representative of
the deer tribe in southern Patagonia, and it inhabits
the entire range of the Andes. Naturalists have placed
guemal hi two main divisions, the Peruvian and the
Patagonian. The few Peruvian specimens which I
have seen are inferior to their cousins of the south,
being smaller and less symmetrical. The Patagonian
deer stands some 36 or 38 inches at the shoulder, and
weighs, I should judge, though I never had the
opportunity of putting an animal in the scales, some
160 Ibs. The horns in the British Museum are poor,
and I had very great hopes of being able to secure some
finer specimens.

Early hi my travels I had been told that the guemal

30 HUNTING CAMPS.

(I have preferred this form of the word as it more
nearly approaches to the name as locally spoken)
extended in its range to the Atlantic, and some few
animals were said to haunt the highlands near the
outlet of the Rio Deseado. But as far as my own
experience goes I am inclined to believe that
the guemal does not stray far from the immediate
neighbourhood of the Andes.

In Patagonia itself very little was known of this
animal ; in fact, for a long time I met no single
individual there who had shot one, though among my
gauchos, a Welshman named Jones had once caught
sight of a buck running along a spur of the mountains
near the colony of " The 16th October," a settlement
lying to the north-west of the country, some seven
hundred miles north of Lake Buenos Aires.

The desire to kill something is, in the hackneyed
phrase, the dominant aim of an Englishman's life, but
when the creature he wishes to kill has rarely been
obtained by any other man the desire increases in
strength. Give him, further, months of anticipation,
and then three weeks of fruitless hunting, and his
eagerness will probably grow out of all proportion to
the end in view. Yet, surely, it is this very lack of
proportion that lends to sport its powerful dominion
over its votaries, who, though probably in the main
reasonable beings, become so much in earnest while in
pursuit that they have at such times only room for the
single idea. Such was the state of mind at which I
had arrived in the early days of that December.

I had tried by every means in my power to persuade
the Indian guide, who was with us at that period,
to remain and hunt with me in the foothills, but, though

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 31

he was willing to accompany me along the shores of
the lake, nothing could induce him to venture into
even the outermost ring of the mountains. Following
his directions, however, I spent a number of days
riding through all the likely defiles which sweep from
the ridges to the level of Lake Buenos Aires. I had
shot several guanaco and a couple of ostriches, and had
patrolled the full length of the eastern lake-shore,
without discovering so much as the track of a guemal,
although the Indian, who had in the interval taken his
departure, had pointed out this particular area as the
place where from time to time his tribesmen had killed
deer.

Apart from its value as a natural history specimen,
the meat of a deer would have been very welcome in
camp, for game at that time happened to be very
scarce on the northern shores of the lake, so much so,
in fact, that after several days' hunting, which resulted
in a total bag of two upland geese, food was at so low
an ebb with us that we were reduced to eating a horse
we were obliged to shoot. As birds were few and far
between on that arid strip of country, I did not carry a
shot-gun, but had to deal with those I saw to the best
of my power with a rifle. In this way I shot ducks,
swans, geese, and ibis. I had met with an accident
that prevented my getting about as readily as usual,
but as soon as I could travel I rode on the back trail as
far as the River Fenix, near to which I had seen some
game, and there I found and stalked a single guanaco.
The death of this old buck, besides being most oppor-
tune from the commissariat point of view, seemed to
mark the turning point of my ill-luck in hunting, for
on the next day I shot another guanaco close to camp,

32 HUNTING CAMPS.

and, later in the afternoon, found for the first time the
tracks of a guemal in a gully near the lake, but failed
to catch a sight of the deer itself.

About a week after one of my men observed a guemal
buck and some does while making camp near Mount
Piramide, but crossing to windward they made off.
Near this mountain, during the previous year, my
friend Mr. Waag, of the Argentine Boundary Com-
mission, had shot several guemal. I was therefore
rather disappointed at my vain search, but thought it
not unlikely that the fact of being hunted by Mr.
Waag's party had driven the deer away from that
particular spot. I hunted, riding perseveringly over
the ground pointed out by the Indian, for nearly a
whole month without success before I discovered a
district where they were plentiful ; this was a high strip
of tableland between the rivers de Los Antiguos and
Jeinemeni, which flow into Lake Buenos Aires from
the southern mountains.

To reach these mountains entailed a sixty miles' ride,
which I undertook with one of my men, and passing
round the great lake we came, on the second day, to the
Rio de Los Antiguos, and turned along its bank into a
valley which seemed to run between frowning cliffs into
the cordillera. After following the valley for some
distance we forded to the western bank of the river and
pitched camp, on a spot clear of thicket and close to a
forest that looked very green to my eyes after our long
journey over the pampas.

That same evening, close to the camp, I found the
tracks of a guemal that had come down to drink at the
river. It had been stalked and attacked by a puma and
her cub, but had managed to get away into the woods,

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 33

where I was unable to follow the trail, and so did not
see how the unequal contest ended.

Next morning we pushed on up the valley. From
the top of the cliffs a tableland stretched westwards to
the valley of the Jeinemeni, and I fancied this strip of
high country should be a likely hunting ground. And
in fact, as I was riding the following afternoon along the
top of the barranca, a young guemal buck suddenly
sprang out from some rocks in front of me. As I was
the first human being he had ever seen, he halted in
curiosity to have a good look. His pretty attitude, no
less than his confidence, made it hard for me to shoot,
and had we not been in urgent need of meat I should
have let him go, as his horns were but four or five inches
long. However, Nemesis followed at once, for, though
I hid the meat while I went to fetch my man and the
other horses, the condors took such full toll of the deer
that we had a very scanty meal after all. Before leaving
this tableland I shot another young buck in the failing
light of a cold evening.

My next chance — and my first at a warrantable buck
— came at a most inopportune moment. The river had
risen during our stay on the tableland, its shallow
current had changed to a yellow, tumbling torrent, which
carried down with it from the heights trunks of trees
and other debris.

After a good deal of manoeuvring and a closer
acquaintance than I desired with the snow-fed water,
we had crossed over and were not more than fifty yards
from the river bank, when two guemal does, led by a
beautiful buck with horns far larger than any I had seen
in the museums, broke out of a thicket of wild currant
bushes and stood for a moment at gaze. Having

H.C. D

34 HUNTING CAMPS.

neither my rifle nor my gun owing to an accident, I
seized my companion's Colt, and as the buck sprang
away I fired at his shoulder. The buck disappeared,
and my man remarked that the Colt did not shoot very
straight, a fact I happened to be well aware of, as I had
previously tried it at a target with the poorest of results.

But on this occasion I felt sure that I had heard the
bullet strike, and, following, I soon picked up a blood
trail, which brought me at length to the animal lying
dead in a currant brake. The bullet had entered his
neck, and as I had aimed at the shoulder I was very
lucky to get him. The horns, to which shreds of velvet
still hung, measured ten and a quarter inches, consider-
ably more than those of the best museum specimen.

A few days later, as I was riding beside the river on
my way back to camp, I chanced to look up and saw
far above me, at the head of a huge rift in the cliff, a
guemal buck and a doe. He was standing overlooking
the valley, and between me and him lay several
hundred yards covered with rocky fragments. I dis-
mounted and focussed him with my telescope, and,
judging that he had a fine head, I began to stalk him.
As I had only shot a few deer I was resolved not to
lose this one, and consequently I moved with great care,
worming my way among the boulders. At a distance
of about four hundred yards I again used the telescope,
and saw that the head carried an extra point and was
far the finest I had seen. But soon after I recommenced
my stalking the buck grew suspicious, and without
warning bounded away.

Surprised at this — for hitherto the guemal I had shot
had proved so tame as to afford little sport — I made
my way back into the valley, and, riding round the bluff,

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 35

I found a gradient that my horse could climb, and was
soon galloping across the tableland, over the edge of
which the deer had disappeared. I had not gone far
when I again sighted the buck. He was standing out
in the centre of a grassy space watching me. As
there was no cover at all, I began to ride round him,
narrowing the circle until I got within two hundred
yards, when I dismounted. As I did so he ran back a
few yards and stopped when I shot him.

From my later experience of these deer I am con-
vinced that, either afoot or on horseback, I could have
ventured to much closer quarters, though if I had con-
tinued my first line of stalk and, trying to keep myself
hidden, had crawled into view over the edge of the cliff,
he would probably have made off directly he caught a
glimpse of me. In fact, I believe that in the first
instance he mistook me for a puma, the only animal,
except the Magellan fox or wolf, which the guemal has
to fear. This would explain his flight. Indeed, at all
times I found guemal more easy to approach if I walked
towards them in an upright position than if I attempted
to get to close quarters by crawling.

From the point of view of sport the guemal were
something of a disappointment after the long and
difficult journey it was necessary to make before
reaching them, and, though I shot a few for meat and
for specimens, I doubt if the obtaining of some record
heads was ever attended with less keenness : but
though they will stand to stare with curiosity at a
human being, once they get the wind they are wild
enough ; also in woodland and cover they are not
readily outwitted. Above all, the world now contains
few species or sub-species of deer, of which no more

D 2

36 HUNTING CAMPS.

than a couple of specimens are attainable for purposes
of study, and a very special interest on that account
pertained to the pursuit of these deer.

Owing to the fact that the heads available for study
of the guemal carried but two points on each horn, it
has been supposed that the single fork of the antlers
was characteristic of this species, but such is not the
case. Of the specimens which I obtained, photographs
of some of which are reproduced, two carry an extra
point. In one pair of antlers no less than two extra
points are more than indicated, and as these seemed to
belong to a very old buck, I am led to believe this
animal, when his horns were at their best, carried six
developed points, and I have heard on good evidence of
an eight-point head.

I was unable to gather any reliable information as to
when the guemal drop their horns, and I can only give
the facts of my own observations — that the horns are
in velvet in November ; that they become clear of it,
especially in the case of old bucks, early in December ;
and that as late as the 12th of May the bucks are still
carrying their antlers.

One feature that can hardly fail to strike any traveller
about the Andean foothills, as indeed upon the pampas
and throughout the whole of Patagonia, is the extra-
ordinary number of birds and animals of prey that
exist in the country. All about the lakes and in the
edges of the forest uncounted pumas and Magellan
wolves, as well as myriads — no other word describes
it — of hoary dogs, have their abode and seek their
sustenance. The air, too, furnishes a corresponding
contingent of flesh and carrion eaters, coranchos,
chimangos, and condors. Short of the Arctic circle,

The Author's Collection of Guemal Heads.

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 37

the struggle for life is probably a harder one in Pata-
gonia than in almost any other region of the world.
Not once or twice, but again and again, when I killed
wild fowl, my prize was snatched from me by some
rapacious bird. In Scotland I have occasionally lost
dead and wounded duck owing to the attentions of
hoodie crows, but never have I had to hold with the
gun or rifle what I had secured by the gun or rifle to
the same extent as in Patagonia. The idea of a cache
in Patagonia, using the ordinary northern acceptance of
that term, is absurd. Except under a roof nothing is
safe, and even under a roof, if provisions be left for
long, the foxes will dig their way in and devour them.
Whatever you kill in an exposed or open position is
reduced to bare bones within a couple of hours.

The condor is the largest of the New World vultures.
They stand well over three feet in height, and are said
to measure in some few cases fifteen feet across the
outspread wings. I only shot two or three — as the
slaughter seemed useless — and the largest of these.
an unusually fine specimen, measured well over ten
feet fully stretched from tip to tip of its wings, while
a young bird I shot off Hellgate Cliffs and measured
carefully spread nine feet three inches.

Although the predatory greed of the birds was a
great nuisance when we wished to preserve game for
our own food, I nevertheless passed many interesting
hours in watching them. I had read a great deal
concerning the habits of vultures and the marvellous
speed with which they appear about a carcase, as well
as various speculations as to the particular sense which
enables them to discover it. I made one or two experi-
ments with a view to gaining light on this question as

38 HUNTING CAMPS.

far as the condor is concerned ; but before I began
these I had had many times to face the task of keeping
the condor off game that I had shot in the open country,
and I found that to succeed in this was quite impos-
sible unless I remained beside the dead animal. To tie
handkerchiefs and rags to flutter and float above the
body had no scaring effect, for the birds disregarded
them altogether, and to drag the low bush of the
pampas over the kill was equally futile.

On the other hand, a guemal and a wild bull, which I
shot at different times in thick wood, though partially
eaten by both pumas and foxes, did not appear to have
attracted the notice of the condors. These instances,
and one or two others of a similar kind, seem to show
that the condor finds its food purely by eye. One day
in the vicinity of Lake Buenos Aires I shot a young
guanaco. At the moment the animal fell, and for five
minutes afterwards there was not a condor in sight in
any quarter of the heavens. Having gralloched the
animal and taken a part of the meat, I retired to the
shelter of some rocks which lay about a hundred and
fifty yards from the carcase. I had hardly reached
them when a condor swept over and, after circling once,
pitched beside the kill. This bird had not begun to
peck when he was joined by two more, and in six
minutes by my watch no less than thirty-eight of the
great carrion-eaters had arrived on the scene. They
made little noise as they pecked and tore, but when I
rose from my hiding-place — where, by the way, I
certainly was not invisible to them — and ran towards
them, they, or some of them, gave vent to a kind of
snuffling groan ; I cannot describe it more accurately
than in those words. Although the birds gorge when

38

•sTI\<; CAMPS.

far ;: ied ; but before I began

•ny tin ie the task of keeping

;ame that I had shot in the open cout

and I found that t

had n«
altogethei

over th<

On the other hand, a gu-
shot at different tii
eaten by both pun;
attracted the notice or

1

in this was quite impos-
le dead animal. To tie
er and float above the
disregarded
ush of the

hull, which I

i >artially
have

•

I 1« dly reached

r circling once,

beside > bird had not begun to

when ined by two more, and in six

ites by my watch no less than thirty-t the

carrion-eaters had arrived on the They

made little noise as they pecked and toi

from my hiding-pi y, I

certainly was not in\ i towards

«, they, or some o1 kind of

.snuffling groan ; 1 cannoi stely

than i[i the is. Al' vhen

Pat agon ian Guemal.

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 39

opportunity offers to such an extent that they can only
with difficulty rise from the ground, on this occasion
such of the guanaco meat as I had left gave but a
snack to each, and they all flew off with a great beating
of wings.

On another day, having again shot a guanaco, I sat
down in the open on a stone not more than fifty yards
from it. Soon the condors began to appear, as
well as some coranchos. The latter perched on the
bushes at a distance, and the condors did not alight
until I had gone some forty or fifty yards further off,
when at last one bolder than the rest settled and began
to pluck out the guanaco's eyes.

It has since been a matter of regret to me that I did
not try to get some condors' eggs, but it was rather late
in the season, and, though I saw many of their breeding-
places on the high cliffs round the Andean lakes, the
young birds were hatched by that time, for it was
already December when I reached the mountains among
the cliffs of wThich they nest.

There can be no doubt about the fact that condors do
attack living game, though it is probable that they
choose the very young or weak animals as their prey.
I can recall an instance that I witnessed near Lake
Argentine. I was riding down a rugged cleft in the
deep canadon of a river valley on the eastern side of the
lake when I saw on a ledge ahead of me a guanaco
struggling to rise from its knees. The poor creature was
too weak to do so in spite of its furious efforts. Two
large condors were hovering close above it. As I
galloped up the guanaco fell over on its side, and one of
the birds instantly lit close by and pecked at it. I rode
up in less than a minute and the condor rose at once,

40 HUNTING CAMPS.

but in that moment it had torn out both the guanaco's
eyes. When, after putting it out of its pain, I examined
the animal, I found that it was suffering from scab and
was so emaciated that it must have been on the point of
death when the condor attacked it.

Nothing more ghastly can be imagined than the fate
of the solitary rider who meets with an accident in that
region ; such an incident forms the subject of a powerful
and gruesome picture which hangs in the Natural
History Museum at La Plata. In this picture a gaucho
has fallen from his horse and lies helpless on the ground
while the condors and other birds of prey are sitting
round him or wheeling in the air above his head. It
represents, I am afraid, a tragedy which the pampas
have often witnessed.

Certainly of all game in Patagonia the wild cattle in
their favourite habitat, the thick forests of the southern
cordillera, afford the best sport and are the most difficult
to bring to bag, if such an expression may be used of a
quarry weighing close upon 2,000 Ibs. These animals
are said to have bred wild since their ancestors escaped
from the early Spanish settlements on the Valdez
Peninsula to the grassy hollows and forested spurs of
the cordillera, since when fresh blood has no doubt been
constantly brought in by truants from the estancias on
the coast.

The wild cattle mostly frequent the forests about the
Andean Lakes, and those that have been free for
generations present a fine appearance, having lost the
smooth aspect of domestication and reverted to the
shaggy hair, lean bodies, and longer horns that mark
the wild strain. In the daytime they keep much to the
thickest forests, wandering to their edges morning and

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 41

evening and feeding to a great extent by night. As
to drinking-places, their range in the woodland is well
supplied with streams.

If the wild bull only possessed a better trophy, few
beasts would stand higher in the category of dangerous
game, for he passes his life amidst surroundings of great
natural beauty, among the forests and peaks on the
frontiers of the cordillera, though sometimes the herds
push right up to the snowline. Added to the fact that
they occupy very difficult country, experience has made
them extraordinarily wary. If attacked or wounded
they invariably charge, and are agile enough to be
exceedingly dangerous antagonists.

All the hills and high ground about Lake Argentine
are scored by the paths and trails made by the wild
herds, many of them leading over the open summits.
During the spring and summer the cattle remain upon
the heights.

In autumn and winter, driven downwards by the
snow, they descend to the lower forests and wander out
upon the pampas, at which season they are much followed
and persecuted by wandering gauchos, if any such
happen to be in the vicinity, who catch the cows and
calves with their lassoes and "lead them into cap-
tivity, captive." This state of warfare with man has
developed both acuteness and extreme caution in the
cattle, so that a whole herd will disappear at once on the
slightest alarm and seek a fresh ground. Again and
again I have been very near to herds in the blinding
cover of the forests, but each time only to find by their
tracks that they had eluded me. Yet one is apt to
come upon old bulls, either singly or in twos and threes,
when still-hunting. In this case the intruder upon

42 HUNTING CAMPS.

their seclusion is more than likely to be charged at
close quarters.

With the exception of man the bulls have of course
no enemy of whom they need take account, though a
^certain number of calves are probably killed by pumas.
In fact, when any herd, wild or tame, comes upon the
track of one of these animals they will often follow it
lowing for a certain distance.

In an unfenced and unpopulated country like Pata-
gonia numbers of cattle escape and run wild for months
at a time. These for the most part make towards the
mountains, and gauchos have often remarked to me
that when they have come across strayed cattle on the
plains they were nearly always heading for the west.
This may be accounted for, as the animals would
naturally travel up against the prevailing winds, and so
in time they reach the rampart of the cordillera, where
they find shelter and good food and can foregather with
their wild-bred kindred.

At one time I believe the Falkland Islands were
famous for wild-cattle shooting, the animals being
driven by gauchos to posted guns. In those good days
British naval officers were sure of exciting and interest-
ing experiences when they visited the realms of the
" King of the Penguins," as the Governor of the Falk-
lands used to be called from the vast colonies of those
birds which inhabited his regency. But that time is
past, and the Falklands are now given over to mild
flocks of sheep.

One of my first experiences with wild cattle occurred
in the neighbourhood of Lake Buenos Aires, when I
and my Welsh gaucho, Humphrey Jones, came in the
early morning upon the track of a big bull. On his

The Shore of Punta Bandera.

A Cold Day on Lago Argentine.

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 43

trail we rode hour after hour, and though at one time
all signs proved that we were very close to him, he
finally led us into a stony and arid belt of country where
we could no longer hold the track. In spite of losing
him, the experience was interesting in that it showed
the pace at which a bull will sometimes travel, for at the
start we were not above an hour behind him, and we
followed at a good rate. No doubt in some of our
wheeling and turning the bull got the wind of us, which
hastened him on his journey to the refuge of the distant
•cordillera.

I was perhaps unfortunate in that I was so often near
the herds without obtaining a shot, as once in the
gloaming I saw a herd containing some magnificent old
bulls descend the rugged side of Mount Buenos Aires to
drink in Lake Argentine. A deep rift separated me
from them, and by the time I had made my way round
it was too dark to shoot, though I could hear the great
brutes moving about in the water just beneath me. Of
course, on occasions considerable numbers of the true
wild cattle have been killed or captured in a single day,
but this has always taken place on the pampas ; in the
cordillera such an occurrence would not be possible.

After a shot it was an almost hopeless task to attempt
to come again within range of the same herd that day,
and under cover of the following night they usually left
the mountain on which they had been disturbed.
During nineteen days of hunting wild cattle near Lake
Argentine, though I was continually finding the tracks
and beds of bulls, I only had shots at two. This was
partly owing, however, to my refusal of a few other
chances, for I sighted the animals in such difficult posi-
tions that, as I was carrying only a "275 Mauser, I was

44 HUNTING CAMPS.

afraid of only wounding without enough probability of
a kiU.

One day when riding down to the low forest — where
I had seen a guanaco standing actually in the edge of
the trees — I found the tracks of a herd numbering a
dozen or more, and I followed them for several hours.
I was just thinking of taking a few minutes' rest, when
I heard a stick crack on my left front, as an outlying
cow gave the alarm to her companions. Running over
the rise, I was in time to see a bull as he dashed away.
I got in a stern shot which checked him, and the second
barrel of the Paradox behind the shoulder brought him
down, but even then it needed a third bullet to finish
the business.

On another occasion I spied three large animals from
a great distance. Two of them were lying down, and I
could only see the quarters of the third, whose head and
fore part were hidden by a bush. The cattle were
several hundred feet above me and considerably over a
mile away. In order to approach them without getting
to windward, it was requisite to make a very wide circuit
and to come down upon them from above, where the
ground, through the telescope, appeared to be covered
with huge boulders of basalt, that promised adequate
cover for the stalk. The climb to the top of the moun-
tain was long and hard. I made my way up the steep
gully of a narrow torrent, crossing many of its ice-cold
tributaries, until at length I reached the crest of the
peak, and was rewarded by a view of the most magnifi-
cent spread of scenery. When heated in the chase the
hunter is not always actively conscious of the beauty of
his environment, as he has time and inclination to be
during the many long pauses and waits of stalking, yet

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 45

that the beauty of environment appeals to some
sub-conscious self is certain, for scene after scene not
sensibly noticed at the moment of seeing remains
clearly etched on the memory. The Patagonian Andes
may well be described as "unspeakably grand and
terrible," for such is the impression they usually make
upon the mind ; but on the day I write of the sun was
shining brilliantly and had changed the whole aspect of
the scene. For once the formidable summits, 8,000 or
9,000 feet high, crowned with snow and clothed about
their flanks and spurs with dense black forest-lands,
were lit and softened. In the sky there was not a
cloud, and far below me the lake, so often storm-tossed,
shone like a pool of fathomless blue.

Although it had been still enough in the valleys, a
pretty strong wind was blowing on the heights. A bold
escarpment hid me completely from the bulls, and it
was not until I was opposite a rock which I had marked
as being on a line with them that I peered over. At
first I could discover no sign of the wild cattle, but
moving cautiously to another coign of vantage I saw
one, a great brindled bull, walk slowly into view along a
game-track. He was soon followed by a second bull, if
anything a larger animal ; this latter was an overo, as the
Spaniards call a piebald of black and white. The third
was not visible. The bulls were about four hundred yards
away, but between me and them was a wide outcrop of
glacial detritus, among which I crawled towards a
boulder, within a hundred yards of which it seemed to
me likely the bulls would pass. I was hardly half way
to the boulder, when a pair of horns suddenly came in
sight. These belonged to an animal lying down lower
on the hillside, and which had hitherto been hidden by

46 HUNTING CAMPS.

the rocks. At a hurried glance I imagined it must be
the first of the two bulls I was stalking, as the colour was
brindled. He was quite unaware of my presence, and
remained so while I crawled forward with great care to
the next point I had selected. When I reached it I found
I was within eighty yards of him, as he lay sleepily only
a few feet from the game-track. I was beautifully placed
for a shot, but a second look told me that this was not
the great brindled beast I had first seen, but the third
animal, which was nothing like as large and with far
inferior horns. I was quite contented, nevertheless, as I
believed it to be only a matter of time, for I knew his
companions could not be far away, but were probably
approaching up the game-track behind him and just out
of sight over the edge of the ridge. I waited for several
minutes in expectation, but as they failed to appear I
began to fear that they had turned off the main track.
There was nothing for me to do but to remain where I
was, as I could not advance without being discovered
by the young bull in front, and to return on my tracks
did not seem to promise any better chance of success.

I could have shot the small bull easily, but I had set
my heart on the two patriarchs, whose mighty horns I
resolved to have or none. For more than an hour the
troublesome four-year-old kept his position and forced
me to keep mine, and when he did at last rise he left
the game-path and made straight towards me. Every
moment as he moved I expected to see the horns of the
other bulls rise over the ridge, but he lumbered on
slowly till he was within forty yards of me, when
suddenly his whole aspect changed — he broke into an
unwieldy trot which almost immediately became a
gallop. At the same time there was a crashing above

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 47

me, and, looking up, I saw a herd of fifteen or more
cattle tearing along the mountainside till they dis-
appeared down a gully. This herd must have fed right
up to windward of me, and among them probably the
two big bulls, for, from an examination of the tracks, I
found these two had branched off the main game-trail
and joined the herd, of whose presence I remained
ignorant until too late. At one time the whole herd,
with the bulls, in travelling upwards, had passed within
a hundred paces of my hiding-place, and only the pre-
sence of the small bull had stood between me and the
best of chances. However, I was destined to kill a
good bull from that same herd a few days later, when I
once more got within range of them, and this time
secured a large red bull, the only one at which I could
get a clear shot.

On the whole the luck which is said to sway " to-day
with the hunter, to-morrowT with the hunted," kept well
on the opposite side during all the time that I hunted wild
cattle, for although I had not the chagrin of actually
missing any animal I shot at, yet several times when I
had climbed and crawled within range of the outlying
members of a herd these turned out to be cows or
small animals not worth shooting. If I had been given
even an ordinary degree of luck I ought to have
obtained at least half-a-dozen magnificent bulls. As it
was I had to be content with two good ones, but my
chief regret lies in the fact that it is unlikely I shall ever
have the chance of a return match with them, for the
sport is nothing less than first class, and the vigorous
days spent on the mountains possess a charm that makes
one long to experience it again. When hunting wild
cattle in this neighbourhood, I saw a number of guemal,.

48 HUNTING CAMPS.

all much wilder and more difficult of access than their
less experienced fellows about Lake Buenos Aires ; but,
though some of these had good heads, I was often
obliged to pass them by, as the report of a rifle would
have frightened away the greater game.

While going back to camp one evening I saw an
animal sneaking along the shore of the lake, which I
soon made out to be a Magellan wolf or fox. As it was
moving rapidly I was very much surprised when a long
shot hit it. The wolf snapped at the wound and
vanished into some brush. I followed it, and as I came
close it dragged itself out and ran at me. Before I
could fire its teeth were fixed in my putties, when
I killed it with a kick. Although a small animal,
measuring but three feet four to six inches from the
teeth to the tip of the tail, these red wolves are most
courageous ; they seem to have no fear whatever of
man. In another district one of them ate the leather
slings of my rifle from the tent in which I was
sleeping, and next morning, instead of making off,
remained under a bush in the camp, where I shot
it. On a third occasion that I remember I had killed
an ibis, and as I walked up a wolf ran out and seized
the bird right in front of me. When I came close it
dropped the ibis, but stood growling and snarling over
it, disputing possession until I was within a yard or
two, when it ran to attack me, only, of course, to receive
the second barrel of my gun. The immediate vicinity
of the cordillera appears to be the habitat of these
Magellan wolves, for I never met with them elsewhere.

In fact, the best sport in Patagonia is to be obtained
in the neighbourhood of the Andes, for about their
lower spurs and foothills, as well as upon the country

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 49

immediately below, where a chain of lakes lies linked
for hundreds of miles, all the larger animals are to be
found. Guanaco and ostrich abound on the lower
slopes and the adjacent levels, while higher in the moun-
tain region guemal and wild cattle have their home,
Pumas exist everywhere, but are more numerous in the
rocky escarpments of the lower hills. These five species
make up the hunter's list in Patagonia, which in this, as
in all else, is chary of her gifts to man. Once an Indian
was asked why the Good Spirit (Who among the
Tehuelches is nameless), when He created the guanaco
and the guemal to feed His people, did not add other and
larger animals to His benefits. The Indian answered :
" For that do not accuse the Good Spirit, for when He
dwelt in the cave and made the guanaco for our use, the
Gualicho, the Spirit of Evil, made the puma ; when He
made paahi (the cavy) the Gualicho made the fox. So
the Good Spirit ceased to fashion animals for His
children, lest worse should come of it."

As practically nothing is known of the various parts
of Patagonia and the methods of travel necessary to
reach the various hunting grounds, it is possible that a
few words on localities and equipment may not be out
of place.

As I have said, the larger game of the country are
chiefly to be found in the neighbourhood of the Andes
To reach the cordillera a long journey across the pampas
must first be made, and for this a troop of horses is
required. Horses may be bought at the various estan-
cias along the coast, the price varying from forty dollars
Argentine in the north to eighty dollars in the south —
in English money fifty to a hundred shillings. Trained
pack-horses are rare ; such as one buys are usually very

H.C. E

50 HUNTING CAMPS.

troublesome and have to be taught their business. A
light waggon is infinitely preferable ; but light waggons
are unknown in Patagonia, and the clumsy vehicles
which do duty there are not altogether suitable for
rough travel, although they are used in default of better.
They are apt to break down, or rather literally break
up beyond hope of repair, at embarrassing moments
when in some centre of desolation. It would be quite
worth while for an intending traveller to ship a buck-
board down the coast, as it would prove of great value
in cross-country locomotion.

Pack-saddles and horse-gear should be taken from
Buenos Aires, and Messrs. Krabb4 and Higgins in that
city are first-class agents, who spare no trouble in
making arrangements, and from them absolutely reliable
information on all points can be obtained. This firm
will act as bankers, and in fact their aid is in every
way invaluable.

The Andes may be reached by several routes along
the Atlantic coast, the journey varying in length from
six hundred down to a hundred and fifty miles, accord-
ing to the place of departure chosen. I myself crossed
the pampas four times — first from Puerto Madryn to
Lake Buenos Aires, returning by the River Chico to
Santa Cruz, and the second time by following the
River Santa Cruz to Lake Argentine and coming back
across country to Gallegos. The average rate of travel
should work out at about fifteen miles a day.

A waggon-driver and two gauchos can look after
thirty horses, and this number should be ample for four
men on an extended trip. In buying horses it is very
important to secure a tropilla well accustomed to their
bell-mare, for all over the country it is the common

HUNTING IN THE ANDES. 51

usage to hobble the mare at night, when the horses of
her tropitta remain round her instead of straying. I
had but two mares with sixty horses, and as soon as they
became used to the mares they never wandered. On
the other hand, if the traveller takes four or five mares,
to each of which half-a-dozen horses are trained, not
only are the chances of losing a tropilla infinitely multi-
plied, but the finding of a smaller number of horses is a
matter of correspondingly greater difficulty. No pains
should therefore be spared in selecting well-trained
troops.

As to men, gauchos are to be found in most of the
settlements, but here again great care should be taken
to secure the services of reliable men through well-
known estancieros or with the help of the British consul
at Punta Arenas. Wages run from forty to eighty
dollars a month. There are, as a matter of course,
always a number of unsatisfactory gauchos knocking
about the coast towns, who must be rigorously avoided.
Most of my provisions I bought through Messrs.
Krabbe and Higgins, but simple necessaries can be
obtained in Trelew, Santa Cruz, or Gallegos, and by
arrangement at some of the coast estancias. Luxuries
are high priced, but yerba, flour, farina, and tinned goods
can be had at fairly moderate rates, though it is wiser
to take out tea from England. Many of the ports are
free, and it is well to choose one of these and thus avoid
the customs. A letter from the Government at Buenos
Aires is very valuable. When I was in Patagonia no
licence to carry arms or to kill game was required. Laws
with regard to the branding of horses are exceedingly
strict and are administered by comisarios, who are to be
met with at every tiny settlement. These officials have

E 2

52 HUNTING CAMPS.

it in their power to give much annoyance, and one can-
not be too careful about one's papers.

An expedition may reasonably expect to find game
for the pot over the greater part of the country, though
there are certain areas on the pampas from which the
Indians have driven every four-footed thing, yet even
in these districts a shot-gun can keep a small party
adequately if not well fed. If, however, a journey is
made deep into the cordillera, sufficient food must be
taken for the entire trip.

As to the best localities, the southern coasts of Lake
Buenos Aires and the valley of the River de Los
Antiguos are full of guemal, as I believe are most of the
almost untrodden valleys round the majority of the
Andean lakes. There are also some wild cattle on this
country, but once the cordillera is reached a herd may
be found anywhere, or a great stretch of country may
prove entirely barren. The ground on which I hunted
wild cattle near Lake Argentine is now taken up by
settlers, and is likely to be quite shot out.

Although, except on one occasion, I always used a
•275 Mauser, this rifle is undoubtedly unsatisfactory for
wild cattle, and, as I have said, the lightness of the bullet
prevented me from firing at several bulls which I
certainly could have secured with a heavier weapon, and
in the thick timber the use of the Mauser is foolhardy.
For the pampas any of the small bores are perfect — in
fact, two such and a good Paradox form an excellent
battery. It is well to take a spare rifle, as the country
is exceedingly rough, and a fall from one's horse on the
stony or treacherous ground over which most of the
galloping is done may badly damage a rifle.

The climate is dry and good, and ordinary English

HUNTING IN THE ANDES 53

shooting clothes make adequate wear, but the tweed
should be of a harsh texture or of moleskin or elephant
cord, as otherwise it will be torn to pieces in a few days,
for Patagonia is a land of thorns. Boots with nails or,
for stalking, with thick red rubber soles are the best
footgear.

On the pampas tent poles and pegs must be carried,
as these areas are bare of wood, and the tent — which it
is rarely necessary to erect as the weather is so dry —
must not be too high, since the winds are often
tremendous, and pegs do not hold well in the loose arid
soil. But all over the country it is possible to collect
enough brush to boil a kettle, and south of latitude
50° water is generally to be found without trouble. In
the north more care is needed, as there are many dry
regions in which the pools lie so far apart as to constitute
a very real danger.

CHAPTER III.

ON THE LABRADOR.

IT must be acknowledged that there is something
extraordinarily attractive about a hunting-ground that
is still virgin, especially when it holds out a prospect
of illimitable square miles of country and endless
possibilities of anticipation, even if these latter never
materialise.

It was with this most elusive charm about its prac-
tically untrodden interior that I set out for the Labrador
peninsula in the early autumn of 1903, with the hope of
finding out how and where there was a reasonable
chance of coming in view of the herds of Barrenland
caribou that roam at large through that houseless land.

Mr. J. G. Millais accompanied me to Newfoundland,
intending to go on to the Labrador, but on arriving at
St. John's we found to our vexation that the Virginia
Lake, the Reid Company's steamer, which at the time
plied to the further Labrador ports and has since been
lost on that coast, had started for the north and was not
expected to return for ten days or a fortnight. Upon
learning this Millais decided to shoot in Newfoundland
and to give up the further trip as it was late in the
season and it was necessary for him to be back in
England by October. As this was not imperative in
my case, I determined to carry out my intention of
reaching Labrador, as, though I had small hope of being
able to complete any extended trip before the ice closed, I

Eskimos landing Fish at Hopedale.

Stuart Cotter and Moiitagnais Indians at H. B. Co.'s Post, Davis Inlet.

ON THE LABRADOR. 55

thought that for any subsequent attempt I might
make some first-hand knowledge would be exceedingly
useful.

At that time, 1903, there was no recent work written
upon the Labrador peninsula, except the admirable
reports of Dr. A. P. Low, of the Canadian Survey, and
these were concerned chiefly, indeed almost entirely,
with the districts west of the George River, but next to
no information regarding the region lying between that
river and the east coast seemed obtainable. All things
considered, I was convinced that, even in the face of
various set-backs, the trip was well worth while. I spent
a good deal of time making inquiries among the whalers
and about the south side of St. John's Harbour, but the
cod-fishers, who had experience of the Labrador,
although well acquainted with the sea of those latitudes,
and all that therein is, knew singularly little of the vast
interior upon the foreshore of which they had passed
many a summer. Some told me that they had fre-
quently heard of large numbers of caribou being killed
near Davis Inlet in the autumn ; I was also assured that
it would be useless to take a canoe with me, as the
Indians who came out to the east coast to sell then- furs
were obliged to pack in and out to the George River,
owing to the lack of navigable waters. This latter piece
of information proved to be incorrect. A map gave no
more help, as practically all the country behind the coast-
line lay blank or filled in here and there at haphazard
with a river or a lake. I received much assistance from
my friend Mr. R. G. Rendell, the agent of the Moravian
Mission to Labrador ; the Reid Newfoundland Com-
pany also kindly provided me passage in the Virginia
Lake, adding their good wishes for the success of one

56 HUNTING CAMPS.

of the first hunters to leave behind the well-stocked
barrens of Newfoundland with a view to going further
afield and, probably, faring worse.

For nearly seven months of every year Labrador
above the 50th parallel is shut off from the rest of the
world by a barrier of ice, its only communication being
maintained by a komatik, or dog-sledge, post that arrives
about Christmas. During the summer its desolate
settlements receive a fortnightly or three-weekly visit
from the mail-boat Virginia Lake, the Hudson's Bay
steamer The Pelican on summer service to their posts,
The Strathcona of the Deep Sea Mission carrying the
gallant Grenfell on his errands of mercy, and The
Harmony, which brings supplies to the Moravian
Mission stations ; these, with the cod-fishery fleets, sum
up the usual traffic of the open season.

As might be expected, Labrador is one of the most
thinly inhabited countries in the world. Its native
population consists of a few hundreds of Indians in the
far interior and a few groups of Eskimo on the
coasts. To these may be added the " livyeres," or
" live heres," as the white settlers are called, the factors
of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts, and last, but not
least, the missionaries of the Moravian Church, a body
of men who yield to none in the singleness and nobility
of their aims, and — often a very different thing, alas ! —
in the adequate methods by which they pursue them.
So much for the residents all the year round. In early
summer these are increased by the cod fleet from New-
foundland, who at the earliest moment that the weather
permits battle north in their schooners and take possession
of their little wooden stations which dot the coast from
Square Island to Fanny's Harbour. Their season lasts

ON THE LABRADOR. 57

from June to October, and during this period they work
as hard as men on a Polar expedition.

The Labrador, thanks to the Moravians and the Deep
Sea Mission, with the indefatigable Dr. Grenfell at its
head, is a most God-fearing region. At the cod stations
they will not even dry fish on a Sunday. On a certain
glorious Sunday morning the head of one of these little
colonies remarked ruefully, "If to-day had been yester-
day, I'd have got every kental dried, and now may be
we'll have no sun until we sail " — an eventuality which
would have meant the loss of several hundred dollars ;
but fortunately on this occasion the sun shone brightly,
not only on Monday, but even on Tuesday.

It was already the 9th of September when, accom-
panied by Jack Wells, now one of the best-known
Newfoundland guides, but then promoted from a cook
to a full-blown guide for the first time, I went aboard
the Virginia Lake, sole passengers, and started on a
coasting ship's slow passage up the coast. The steamer
called at over fifty points before, after two attempts, we
finally landed, during a half-gale from the south-east, at
Fanny's Harbour.

We had no sooner gone ashore than my medical
knowledge was requisitioned for the cook of the fishing-
station, whose hand had been poisoned by a cod bone
and whose arm was frightfully swollen. As, however,
there was a Government doctor on board the Virginia
Lake, and the ship would call at Fanny's Harbour on
her return trip, my medical skill was only tested to the
extent of a poultice and bandaging, which was doubtless
a lucky thing for the cook. A couple of days later, as
Jack Wells and I were returning from shooting, a loud
and dolorous cry was accounted for by the information

58 HUNTING CAMPS.

that the mail-boat doctor was " putting cook to
rights."

Fanny's Harbour is an island settlement, and as the
" livyere," who carries the mail across to the mainland
had, for some unexplained reason, departed on the
day previous to the arrival of the Vii'ginia Lake, we
were in a sense marooned upon the island, where,
however, we added to the provision list by shooting an
Arctic hare and a brace of ducks.

The gale held for two days before, weary of waiting,
I at length prevailed upon the head of the settlement,
Capt. Tom Spracklin, to lend me a trap-boat with a
crew to row her, and in the black of dawn, after a most
glorious display of Aurora Borealis, the " search-lights of
God," we set off for Davis Inlet, twenty miles away.

Before leaving St. John's I had arranged with the
Reid Company to send the Virginia Lake to call for us
at Fanny's Harbour about the 17th or 18th of October.
In view of possible contingencies and to secure as much
time for hunting as possible, I purchased the trap-boat,
and in the event it proved useful.

We started before dawn, as at that hour the wind
had died away and the dangerous passage between the
twin rocks which guard the entrance to Fanny's Harbour
seemed practicable. Soon the settlement was standing
behind us, a compact rocky mass against the dawn, as
the boat, propelled by six enormous and clumsy oars,
crept slowly out from its shadow. To starboard the
swell was bursting upon the bases of seven or eight
huge icebergs, while upon the port side of our little
craft lay the wild coast of Labrador, low and bare until
it rose into the massive headland of Cape Harrigan.

Rain commenced to fall at dawn, and about midday

ON THE LABRADOR. 59

it became obvious that we should not be able to make
Davis Inlet before dark, and, as no one aboard had a
pilot's knowledge of any portion of the coast save the
rocks and reefs of Fanny's Harbour, the helm was
perforce put over and we headed for Jack Lane's Bay,
a deep creek upwards of a dozen miles long, on the
north side of which, I was told, there dwelt an old
trapper named Sam Broomfield, who had killed some
deer the previous year.

At first upon both sides of the inlet the shores were
flat and treeless, but as mile joined mile in our wake,
patches of hardy conifers became more and more
frequent. Several flocks of yellow-shanks, locally
known as " twiUigs," haunted these flat shores in
some numbers, and one or two that flew over the boat
were saluted with a Paradox shot-gun. Ultimately
three twilligs and a red-breasted merganser made up
the bag. Just before we came in sight of Broomfield's
house an exceedingly wild seal, of the species known as
harbour seal, or bay seal, an animal identical with our
common seal, Phoca vitulina, showed at a distance of
about three hundred yards, but having evidently had
some former experience of boats, it dived immediately,
only to reappear some ten minutes later in mid-
estuary.

As a matter of fact, seals are wilder about Labrador
than in any waters I have visited, excepting only the
Froien off the coast of Norway, a group of bare islands
almost cut by the Arctic circle. Of course, the reason
of the wariness of the seals in Labrador fiords is not
far to seek. The skin, flesh, and blubber form very
important assets in the lives of the shore-dwellers.
Boots made of sealskin are the universal foot-gear, and

60 HUNTING CAMPS.

fetch about $1*50 to $2 a pair. I afterwards found
that in the making of these boots, and indeed in all
Arctic needlework, Mrs. Sam Broomfield stood unrivalled
even by the Eskimo. She uses the pelt of the common
seal for the legs and that of the square-flipper for the
soles, while she ornaments the tops with a fringe of
ring-seal. Boots and mocassins made by her are sought
after far and wide. While I was up country she made
me a camera case and a cartridge bag of sealskin, both
of which show absolutely no sign of wear, even after
the many hard trips they have undergone.

However, we have travelled ahead of the boat, which
soon beached beneath the cabin. Our landing was
attended by a dozen huskies, animals which recent
fiction has glorified beyond their deserts. These dogs,
led by a powerful animal called Buller, watched us dis-
embark with their bright eyes. Fiction has told how the
moment a husky, vanquished in fight, loses its legs its
team-mates fall upon and tear it to pieces, but fiction has
not added that a child, or even at night in some instances
a strange adult, must also keep his feet to secure safety
from a similar fate. A few months before our visit a
child at Cartwright, one of the Hudson's Bay posts,
slipped upon a wooden jetty and fell amongst the huskies.
There were upwards of fifty bites upon her before her
mother, who showed the highest courage, succeeded in
driving the brutes off. During the daytime the husky
is fairly amenable to the well-aimed stone, but at night,
or under stress of temptation, the savage wolf nature
breaks out at once. I can still remember an anxious
pilgrimage I made in the starshine to fetch a shirt I had
left to dry on the bushes, during which I was accom-
panied by Buller and his fellows, all treading delicately.

ON THE LABRADOR. 61

In the summer time the ordinary Labrador iivyere
does not trouble himself overmuch with the problem of
dog food. If he happens to catch a fish unfit for human
consumption he carries it home for the dogs ; if not, the
animals are left unfed and support themselves by theft
or by long hunting expeditions. On one occasion I
nearly added a husky to my bag. I came upon him
among the spruces some miles inland, and had already
thrown the rifle to my shoulder when I recognised that
the creature slinking through the shadows was not a
wolf, but a dog.

Summer is the hard season for the husky, his owner
probably thinking that as he does no work at that time
he needs no food ; but as soon as the snow comes and
the koinatiks or sledges appear the lot of the husky under-
goes a change. He is then fed and looked after as
much as he needs, and the latter at least more than he
likes. He is the outward and visible sign of the pros-
perity and status of his owner. A man possessing four
dogs is poor, eight makes him well-to-do, while a Iivyere
who can count upon sixteen has attained the dignity of
a very solid yeoman of the Labrador.

But the huskies have taken us far from our theme.
Mrs. Broomfield told us that her husband and son were
in summer quarters at the end of the bay, so after a
most grateful cup of tea we once more manned our trap-
boat and pursued our way between the indrawing shores.
Rather more than a couple of hours brought us within sight
of our destination and of two men in green flat-bottomed
boats, who were seal-hunting at the mouth of a river.
These proved to be Broomfield and his son, and they
rowed out to meet us, so that very soon we were all on
shore collected round a fire. The same evening our

62 HUNTING CAMPS.

crew departed as the wind had shifted to a quarter which
promised a clear run down the estuary, and Jack and I
were left with the trappers.

That night, as we smoked our pipes in the glow of the
camp fire, we gained at last some first-hand information
about the caribou.

For the previous seven or eight years one of the main
herds (so far as I know, it is generally believed there are
three in the peninsula of Labrador) had put in an
appearance in the vicinity of Sam Broomfield's house
between the 5th and 19th of November. Only the year
before the old trapper and his son had shot thirty
animals, and Mrs. Broomfield had watched a part of the
migration from her back window. These facts, though
exceedingly interesting, came in the nature of a blow to
my hopes, for it was perfectly obvious that, as I had to
join the steamer at Fanny's Harbour on the 16th of
October, the caribou would still be some hundreds of
miles away when I must perforce bid farewell to Jack
Lane's Bay.

Though bereft of any chance of seeing " la foule" as
the French Canadians of Hudson's Bay call the great
migration of the caribou, Sam considered it quite pos-
sible that we might, to use his own words, "come up with
some stag that's got left behind," and with a view to
doing this we traversed the woods and barrens round
the end of the inlet for the next few days. Our efforts
proved entirely fruitless, for we saw neither track nor sign
of any animal whatever save foxes. Once Sam, looking
over the vast landscape of fir and spruce, interspersed
with wide and dismal marshes, remarked, " The Labra-
dor do make a man feel terrible lonesome." I do not
think any words could have bettered this description.

Tlie Author in a Kavak.

The Trapboat in Jack Lane's Bay

ON THE LABRADOR. 63

It brought to mind also the fact that here in the far
north, where the limitless barrens set no bounds to his
wanderings, the caribou is a most elusive animal,
capricious and uncertain in the line of his migrations.
Yet the Indians, Montagnais and Xascaupees of
Labrador, as well as the Eskimo tribes of the north, have
nothing but the herds between them and the grim shape
of " Bukadawin " (Famine) who sat in Hiawatha's
wigwam. Bands of the Indians and Eskimo pass away
into the barrens every year to search for the caribou ; if
they cut the line of migration they fare sumptuously
and, moreover, make provision for the winter for their
families. But should they fail to meet them, there is
often an end to their hunting, and the squaws down hi
the timber lands watch in vain for their return. How
many times, one wonders, has a company of Indians
struggled forward, staring at the horizon, where white
snow meets grey sky, straining their eyes for the shapes
which are perhaps passing in thousands just beyond a
man's sight to the east or the west of them. The story
is told of such a party of hunters who waited and
watched in vain. One died and then another ; what-
ever weakness any individual had, it found him out,
until at last but two were left, and they also had turned
their faces to the skin wall of the fireless tent, when the
stronger, crawling to the door, saw a forest of horns
growing up against the wide sunrise as unnumbered
deer moved slowly out of the north-east.

Having exhausted the hunting-grounds about the
inlet, we derived some fresh encouragement from a
statement of Sam's to the effect that one September
some seventeen years earlier a band of Eskimo had
visited a lake lying to the south-west and there had

64 HUNTING CAMPS.

killed nineteen deer and two black bears. He further
said that we could reach another lake on the same chain
by travelling up Jack's Brook, a stream which flows
into the inlet from the north ; also, that by taking this
route I should include in my hunting-ground the large
sand-ridges which trend inland in that neighbourhood.
Were I to go to Labrador again, I should follow a
different route, and would, I think, run every chance of
reaching the main herd of so-called Barrenland caribou.
This herd is on the George River in August, and during
that month enters the isolated timber, working out to
the coast in the following November.

Thus the herd spends its year half in the woodlands
and half upon the barrens, and for that reason it would
seem as if the name Barrenland caribou is a misnomer.
The animals are smaller than their Newfoundland
collaterals, and carry fine antlers ; one in my posses-
sion measures fifty-six inches in length, and another
carries a pair of brow-antlers — always rare in the caribou
— and counts forty-five points. These two heads were
shot — I believe by Eskimo — from the herd which reaches
the coast in the neighbourhood of Davis Inlet.

It only remained to follow Broomfield's counsel and
try our luck at Jack's Brook, in the hope of finding a
stag that had summered upon one of the sandy ridges.
According to Sam, some ten or fifteen years earlier a
few deer were always to be found on the edges of the
high bare upland which stretches from within a mile of
his house right into the interior of the peninsula of
Labrador. In winter the Broomfields, father and son,
make long trapping expeditions by komatik through
this country, but for many years it has been left in
peace by the Eskimo, who now hunt only in the spring.

65

It was eleven years, Broomfield said, since he had killed
a deer in the summer or early fall, and it was upon
this rather hopeless information that Jack Wells and I
rowed down the bay until we came to the mouth of
Jack Lane's Brook — to give it its full name. Here,
seeing some ducks and waders, we did a little shooting
for the pot before starting in earnest.

A few hours later we were engaged in hauling our
craft up a small rapid, when we perceived a figure
approaching us along the north bank. It was that of a
very old half-breed. A white forked beard swept his
breast, and as we came nearer we saw that he was clad
from head to foot in sealskins. His name was Old Man
Lane, though whether it was to him or to his father
that the locality owed its title we did not learn. He
told us that he had been setting a bear-trap a mile or
so above, and on our return when we mentioned our
meeting with him we heard that, having taken a bear
in a trap earlier in the season, the old man, finding
himself without a gun, had gone steadily to work and
stoned the bear to death. But as we saw him crooked
with rheumatism he seemed to have scarcely vitality to
stagger over the rough ground.

A couple of evenings later, having spent the inter-
vening time in the ordinary routine of travel and
reconnoitring, Jack Wells and I made our camp in a
disused lodge which must have been originally built by
Eskimo hunters. We had now gained a fair idea of the
nature of the country. Endless barrens, white, yellow,
and red with reindeer moss, and dotted with Arctic
berries, rolled away until they merged in a dim blue
tumult of mountains which shut in the horizon ; here
and there in the hollows of the hills stood little clumps

H.C. F

66 HUNTING CAMPS.

of evergreen trees, overgrown with moss, harps for the
wind, inexpressibly lonely. There were marshes also
and deep lakes, unchristened as yet, for the surface of
Labrador is mostly water and the smaller lochs are
nameless. Nor is this unnatural, seeing that the settlers
only visit them when they are frozen and obliterated by
a mantle of snow.

Certainly it is a wild and gloomy country, far more
sterile than the wildest parts of Newfoundland, a fact
upon which Jack always laid emphasis when he lit the
camp fire, bemoaning the absence of birch bark, and
evidently holding but a poor opinion of a country where,
as he said, a man could not " get warm to rights." On
the evening upon which we made our camp in the
deserted cabin beside the shores of the lake, I took my
rifle and went for a stroll on the heights to the south of
the outlet. It had rained in the day, and the black flies
had been exceedingly pressing in their attentions ; but
with the evening a wind blew out of the north-west,
always a herald of fine weather in the Labrador autumn,
the heavy clouds and the sultry airs passed away, giving
place to the clear blue northern sky. My way led me
over a series of ridges which seemed to roll for miles
upwards to the height of land. It was impossible for
hundreds of yards at a time to put down one's foot
without crushing masses of purple and yellow berries.
The Arctic summer may be short, but it crowds into its
brief life a wealth of achievement. To man Labrador
is, in all her moods, cruelly inhospitable, but to fur and
feather she is during the autumn months a kindly step-
mother. As I walked forward covey after covey of
spruce grouse rose wild from their feast of berries. A
few nights before we had seen and marked down thirty

ON THE LABRADOR. 67

of these birds within two hundred yards of Broomfield's
house, and with the aid of a Paradox had lessened their
numbers by eleven, being at length driven to desist by
the sheer tameness of our quarry. But here, where the
grouse had probably never seen man or been startled by
his foot-steps, the birds rose at a hundred yards. The
reason was soon obvious, for along the height of the
ridge the ground was seamed with fox-tracks.

I had been walking not more than half an hour when,
taking a zigzag path up a hillside, I entered a grove of
trees and beneath a juniper cut the track of a black bear,
Following it, I soon came upon evident sign of its fresh-
ness, for in the soft ground it was perfectly clear that it
had been made since the rain. The bear had been
feeding upon the berries over which I had walked, and
moreover he had dined not wisely, but too well, since,
after the manner of the Roman emperors, the great
creature had vomited a part of his feast and had begun
feeding again immediately afterwards. I do not think
the bear could at any time have been more than two or
three minutes ahead of me, and had I hurried across the
moss where my foot-falls were noiseless it is quite possible
that I should have seen him before he entered an area of
bush where the highest juniper did not reach ten feet, but
where low scrub and fallen timber made it necessary to
clear the ground before every step. Twenty yards deep
in this unfortunate thicket I heard the bear moving on
my right hand. Here the bushes appeared to open out,
and seeing free ground underfoot, I walked rapidly in
that direction. But this time defeat came from above,
not from below. The jagged branches of a dead pine
touched the felt hat I was wearing, producing a thin
and penetrating sound. I heard two sticks break, and

F 2

68 HUNTING CAMPS.

a moment later was gazing sadly at the tracks of what
must have been a very startled bear.

I followed the trail, which soon showed that its
maker had slowed, but evidently with no intention of
stopping. This led me out on to a high barren, from
which I searched in vain for any patch of black, moving
or stationary. The sun was going down behind the
mountains. As I watched, it sank almost visibly from
view, leaving behind it a cold, milk-white twilight, which
slowly darkened to night. The bear had led me in
something of a circle, so that I came out hardly a mile
from camp. The wind had died away, and every sound
was audible. A splash in the lake, or so I fancied, as
Jack drew water for the evening meal, was followed by
the desolate cry of a mother loon, who, doubtless terrified
by his appearance, circled and screamed at an immense
height above the half-grown feathery balls which repre-
sented her brood, and which would one day be great
northern divers weighing 9 Ibs. apiece, and capable of
killing the largest trout and ounaniche.

Presently her cries ceased, and the splash of her
plunge into the lake came quite clearly. Then it
seemed to grow rapidly darker, the wild had gone to its
rest, the circle of sight narrowed, darkness seemed to
lie in pools in every hollow, and, long before I saw Jack
crouched beside the open fire, the stars had come out
and the owls were calling in the green timber on the
shores of the lake.

Making Igloo Camp our headquarters, we spent the
next and following days in long rovings about the
surrounding country. Once we found a fortnight-old
track of a caribou stag, and twice a young spruce tree
stripped of its bark, but the stags which had rubbed the

£

5

ON THE LABRADOR. 69

velvet from their horns among the branches had done
so at least a couple of years before, as not only were the
trees long dead, but their fellows had grown up and
overtopped them. Yet even if the country lacked
what we most wished to find, it possessed a singular,
if harsh, charm of its own. One spot particularly I
used to love to visit, whether alone or in Jack's com-
pany. Tliis was a little lake which lay some two miles
to the north-west of our camp. Surrounded by trees
and seemingly of great depth, it presented the appear-
ance of an unfathomable pit sunk into the roots of the
hills. The inevitable diver and her brood called cease-
lessly upon its waters, bringing back to memory the
beautiful and poetic words of Saltatha, the Yellowknife
Indian, " You say the Kingdom of Heaven is good, my
father ; but tell me, is it better than the land of the
musk-ox in summer, when the lakes are sometimes
misty and sometimes blue, and the loons cry often?
That is good, my father, and if Heaven is better, I
shall be willing to dwell there until I am very, very
old." Besides the loons two ospreys haunted the little
lake, sometimes fishing in the shallow stream which fed
it, sometimes winging their way over it and out into
the blue distance towards the sea.

But here Indians, poetical or otherwise, rarely come,
their hunting-ground being hundreds of miles away in
the neighbourhood of the George River. Sometimes
in birch-bark canoes they travel down out of the
interior to do their yearly trade at the Hudson's Bay
posts of Davis Inlet and North-West River. Then,
having bartered their furs, there follows a few days'
lounging about the store. The Mountaineers, or
Montagnais, are no longer always the picturesque figures

70 HUNTING CAMPS.

they once were. Instead of the caribou skin coats figured
and painted with strange devices, some now wear a
summer garb of felt hat, trade shirt, and blue jean
jumpers. All that remains of the ancient dress are the
deerskin mocassins worked by their women in their
winter camps. Powder and ball, tea and tobacco, a
little bright- coloured finery for the women (whom they
never bring down to the east coast), form their currency,
and presently one morning, after a ceremonious fare-
well, the birch-bark canoes are loaded and their owners
paddle away into the wilderness and vanish for another
year. They are accompanied upon their journey by
their hunting dogs, small and quick-footed creatures
quite unlike the husky in appearance.

Day after day from all the high hills I used to search
for the smoke of Indian fires, as for some reason that
year neither the Montagnais nor the Nascaupees came
in any numbers to the posts. During this time it was
bright, windy weather ; the wind never dropped, but
blew so fiercely that it made the eyes ache. The same
wind, had we known it, was preparing the way for
a tragedy to the south of us. It was this pitiless wind
which delayed the Hubbard expedition and finally
caused them to turn and to attempt to struggle back
through the long valley of the Susan River. They had
set out early in the season and had pushed on, hoping
always to find the caribou, on which they depended for
food, but in all their wanderings they killed but one
animal, so that finally, weakened by hunger and beset
by snows, poor young Hubbard succumbed, after a
most gallant struggle, while his two companions,
pushing on to get help, could not bring it until too
late.

ON THE LABRADOR. 71

The story of the journey of George Elson, who,
feeding as he could on grouse and porcupine, fought
his way to Grosswater Bay, is one of the epics of the
Men of the Woods, and it can be read, and should
be read, in "A Woman's Way through Unknown
Labrador," which tells also how Hubbard's widow under-
took the task her husband had given his life for and
carried it through with a splendid courage to success.

On the fifth day on rising in the morning I found
that two large bears had visited the vicinity of the
camp during the night. The almost human track
passed within fifty yards of our cabin, when doubtless
the smoke of the fire had sent both animals off at speed.
After a couple of days spent in earnestly searching for
sign or sight of game, we broke camp and passed to
other hunting-grounds. But in all the days we spent in
Labrador neither of us saw either bear or caribou in the
flesh.

It was the 7th of October when we again found
ourselves at Broomfield's house. Here I learned that
the summer colony of cod-fishers at Fanny's Harbour
had already departed for the south, and the captain of
the Virginia Lake doubted whether the Newfoundland
Government (in this matter the Reid Company are the
agents of Government) would sanction the steamer's
venturing so far north as the date arranged, but he had
promised to pick me up at Hopedale, sixty miles to the
south, about the loth of the month. It was now that
the trap-boat proved of service.

Sam was absent on his monthly errand to fetch the
mails, and incidentally my boat from Fanny's Harbour.
We, while awaiting his return, thoroughly explored the
inlet. It was at the north-western end of this creek

72 HUNTING CAMPS.

that Sam had enjoyed his never-to-be-forgotten hunt
some seven years before our visit, when one day he saw
a large brownish creature lumbering through the woods,
cut it off behind a clump of spruces and killed it with a
ball from his rifle. It was not until he was bending
over his quarry that he discovered that he had slain a
polar bear. Its nose and jowl were full of porcupine
quills, and the fact that it had been rolling in the mud
of the river-bank, probably in its efforts to get rid of
the quills, had turned it into a likeness of a gigantic
Barren ground bear. The deaths of this animal and of
seven walrus that were slain by the Eskimo at Hopedale
form the two red-letter events of which every visitor to
that region is sure to hear. But we, alas ! had no good
fortune ; our single success being scored at the expense
of a grey seal that was fishing at the mouth of the
river. For the rest, we only succeeded in keeping our-
selves and the Broomfield family supplied with feathered
game.

At length I was beginning to grow anxious about
catching my steamer, as the winter was rapidly
closing in, when at last Sam put in a welcome
appearance with my boat. The morning following, he
and his son, Wells and myself, with a step-son of Old
Man Lane named Sandy Gear, started on our sixty
miles voyage to the south. This distance we expected
to be able to make by the afternoon of the next day,
but, owing to contrary winds, evening found us still
within the broad-spread arms of Jack Lane's Bay, and
in the morning, after a night ashore round an open fire,
the wind hardened to a gale, which blew almost in our
faces and prevented our making much progress. As
such storms often hold back the traveller in Labrador a

ON THE LABRADOR. 73

week or more at that season, we lost no opportunity to
push ahead, but after a day spent toiling at the oars,
which were of the narrow-bladed pattern that girth
some twelve or fourteen inches below the grip, we
found ourselves wind-bound at nightfall. On the
following day the weather had become worse, and had
it been necessary to cross much open water we should
have been forced to anchor. Our way, however, lay
among the islands until we reached the long rock-
walled stretch of water which is called Windy Tickle.
In certain winds Windy Tickle is quite impassable, as
the gales roar down it like a league-long funnel, the
sheer cliffs on either hand rising some hundreds of feet
from the level of the sea.

As I had left most of our provisions with our kind
friend Mrs. Broomfield, we suddenly discovered that
beyond a little tea and tobacco and a half-loaf of
bread our stock was at an end. We therefore ran
across to a rocky island locally famed as the breed-
ing place of the Arctic hare. But the most careful
search and earnest efforts of Sam, Abraham, Jack, and
Sandy — all of whom probably for the first time in their
lives took part in a hare-drive — resulted only in the
flushing of one or two twittering inhabitants of the isle
which Sam called snowbirds, and which were quite
unworthy of a twelve-bore cartridge. The hares were
either altogether absent or remained in shy seclusion,
and food having become a necessity, I succeeded, amid
the plaudits of the crew, in massacring five gulls, one
for each man. These were rapidly skinned, placed in a
large iron pot and drawn out of it while the water was
still almost lukewarm, but not before Sam, having
discovered the lack of salt, had found time to add a

74 HUNTING CAMPS.

hatful of seawater ! The birds, contrary to expectation,
or because hunger is so good a sauce, were much
appreciated, and from that time onwards until we
arrived at Hopedale no herring gull or blackback flew
into sight without drawing the eager eyes of the crew
of the trap-boat.

But all things have an end, and at length in the
evening, turning a high bluff, we saw before us the
lights of Hopedale, and soon heard the long ululating
cry with which the Eskimo announce the arrival of a
strange boat. Soon we tied up against the wharf and
were making the acquaintance of the Rev. W. W.
Perrett, the house-father of Hopedale Mission, and
one of the most charming men it would be possible to
meet anywhere. While the crew sought the hospitality
of one of Sam's sons-in-law, Jack and I went up to the
mission house, where a dish of canned caribou was
quickly set smoking before us, and Mr. and Mrs. Perrett
were asking and giving news of the coast.

The voyage to Hopedale, with its mild experiences ot
roughing it, would have been thoroughly enjoyable but
for the fears which beset me concerning the arrival and
departure of the mail-boat, doubts which were not much
allayed by Sam's assurance that if I missed her I must
stay over the winter with him and that I should then
have an opportunity of shooting the finest lot of caribou
trophies ever taken out of the Labrador. This probably
might have proved true, as up to that time no one with
any motive beyond that of killing meat had pursued the
herds ; yet the prospect of an enforced residence of eight
months was not one to be calmly anticipated, the more
especially as it would have been impossible for me
to communicate the reason of my detention to my

Hopedale in Winter.

Makkovik, the most southerly Moravian Station in Labrador.

ON THE LABRADOR. 75

relatives, or indeed to Jack's, who assured me that his
wife at Glovertown, Bonavista Bay, would say in the
words of Penelope :

"... Either he is drowned,
Or else his bones lie on the mainland in the rain."

Or, as he more prosaically put it, " I would be give up
in our bay for dead and eat by Eskimo on the Labrador/'

But the steamer had not arrived, nor did she put in
an appearance for three or four days. During the
interval I saw something of life at the mission station.
It is impossible here to do any justice to the magnificent
work of the Moravian brethren. Quite apart from their
efforts in the cause of Christianity, it is my belief that
but for their restraining influence and aid the Eskimo
population of the southern Labrador would have
vanished almost completely. It is well known that no
race is more liable to suffer disastrous consequences from
unchecked contact with civilisation than are the Eskimo.
Dr. Xansen has put it on record that even so mild a
luxury as coffee has very traceable effects upon the con-
stitutions of this people, and it is certain that the
Moravian missionaries have stood between the Eskimo
and indulgence in stimulants far more deleterious than
coffee.

The mission stations of Okak. Xain, Hebron, Hope-
dale and Makkovik, extending as they do along many
degrees of latitude, form sanctuaries for the converts,
where under the wise and benign rule of the house-
father (as the head of each station is called) they are
encouraged to live an existence which preserves as far as
possible all that is manly and wholesome in their
characters. The influence which has led not only to

76 HUNTING CAMPS.

the degradation, but almost to the extinction, of the
Eskimo upon other littorals has invariably taken the
shape of strong drink. Against such traffic the mis-
sionaries resolutely set their faces. Had they not done
so, the Eskimo would beyond all doubt long since have
become the victims of the itinerant trader, and instead
of being to-day a healthy and self-supporting community,
the race would a generation ago have vanished from the
Labrador.

Thus it is not too much to say that the Moravians
are responsible for the survival of the people to whom
they devote their lives. While holding the finest
record in the missionary field of any Church in the
world, a Moravian settlement brings with it immense
boons of a material nature. Each individual missionary
has learned and is expert in the medical profession, or in
some trade likely to be useful to his converts. Dr.
Jannasch built the church and mission-house at
Makkovik, and the Eskimo workmen who assisted him
have since turned their attention to their own dwellings.
Other missionaries build boats ; others, again, understand
the theory and practice of gaining their living from the
sea ; and so the work goes on. All are practical men,
who labour shoulder to shoulder with their people, and
who in this manner establish a mental leadership which
is bracing and effective. On the spiritual side of the
question, I believe that a large proportion of the children
of missionaries return to the mission-field to follow in
their fathers' steps. Certainly no financial inducements
are offered, for in Labrador, at any rate, the salaries of
these devoted men range from £9 to £23 a year. Often
they pass ten or even twenty years without returning to
Europe, and when they do come it is but for a short

ON THE LABRADOR. 77

time, between the visits of the Harmony, the mission
ship which keeps up the yearly communication between
England and the coast of Labrador. It is pleasant to
think that the Church of England has for many years
aided the Moravians by means of an affiliated society.
One thing at least is unquestionable — that every
sovereign which the people of England and America and
Germany subscribe towards the Moravian Church is
made to do the work of two or three times that sum by
the single heartedness and the capacity with which it is
administered.

The Moravians in Labrador have experienced one or
two strange difficulties in their task. Of these the
smallest is making the Old Testament, with its wealth
of pastoral detail, understandable to the Eskimo, not
one of whom has ever seen a horse. Sheep and cattle
they cannot realise or conceive of, for there are no
domesticated animals save dogs in that portion of the
peninsula. They comprehend the story of Esau the
hunter and that of Samson and the lion, which animal
can be translated as Polar bear, but of Abraham in the
land of Mesopotamia they can form no picture ; the
nearest approach to these ideas is drawn from the
harvest of the sea, seals and fish taking the place of
flocks and herds. So is the Bible interpreted to the
harsh meanings of northern life.

One picture of Hopedale is still very vivid. On the
day after our arrival an old Eskimo hunter had died,
and his fellows bore his body to a wild high bluff along
the sides of which generations of their race have been
buried. At the head of the procession walked the
brother, who was conducting the service, and up the
steep path was strung out the entire population of

78 HUNTING CAMPS.

Hopedale. Among the huts some of the dogs were
howling, a flock of gulls circled screaming on the shore,
and from the cemetery came the sound of singing.
The detached syllables, strange to a European ear,
blended oddly with a tune that one has heard in a
hundred churches, floated back on the frosty air.

At last one day, having set an Eskimo to watch for
the mail-boat's coming, I, accompanied by one or two
of the Moravians, set out, hoping to add some grouse
to our bill of fare. As we returned with three birds
in the evening we found our sentinel happily asleep
in the icy wind and the Virginia Lake steaming up the
channel and about to lie-to in the fiord-like bay.

Within a week we disembarked at St. John's.

Finally, a word or two about the caribou of Labrador
may perhaps not be out of place. The only certain
information that I was able to gather was as follows : —
In the southern parts the woodland caribou has been
practically exterminated, though all over the country
they may still be met with in very small numbers.
The Hubbard expedition, 1903, which spent over three
months in the interior, killed but one stag, and it is
probable that these animals have been so thinned out
as to make an expedition in pursuit of them hardly
worth the time, trouble, and expense it would entail.

With regard to the Barrenground caribou the case is
different. I was told that in some years the herds fail
to make their usual November migration to the coast,
and in other years when they do migrate they appear in
diminished numbers. Also they do not each season
visit the same spots on the coast, but come out to the
salt water at points far distant from each other ; for
instance, Sam Broomfield has shot but few deer lately,

ON THE LABRADOR. 79

though formerly they showed in great numbers at Jack
Lane's Bay.

On the other hand, Mrs. Leonidas Hubbard writes
that in 1906 she witnessed the migration near the head-
waters of the George River, but at a date, August 8th,
when the horns were still in velvet.

For the hunter who wishes to find these caribou only
two courses seem to be possible. The one is to winter
in the Labrador and spend the late autumn on the hills
and barrens behind Davis Inlet, Hopedale, or Makkovik ;
the other would be to make arrangements to arrive in
Labrador in the early summer at the first break-up of
the ice and to undertake an extended canoe and packing
journey up Hamilton Inlet, Grand Lake to Lake Michi-
makau, and Michimakats. Provisions must be carried
for every day spent in the country, as, except for fish
and birds, the region to be traversed is practically
gameless. On the upper waters of the George River
the hunter would be as likely to find the deer as any-
where, but, since the migrations are of so arbitrary a
nature, this would by no means be a certainty, though
single stags might be seen.

Since writing the above I have learned that vast
forest fires have altered the line of migration, and the
trend is now much further inland than before.

CHAPTER IV.

A FALL HUNTING TRIP IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

I STARTED for my . first trip in Newfoundland on the
23rd of October, 1903. I had landed on the island
some weeks earlier, on my way to the Labrador, and
the second shooting season had already commenced,
when the Virginia Lake, returning from the peninsula,
carried me for a second time between the two dark bluffs
that guard St. John's Harbour. St. John's is a town of
steep streets and cobbles, built about the hill-bound
mouth of the estuary which forms the roadstead.
Often drenched in sea mists, sometimes blurred with
rain, yet on a blue September day, when the mists have
gone, or only drift in tatters about the brown heights,
with an iceberg, picturesque if dangerous, stranded in
the narrows, it is as beautiful a place in its own way as
any town in North America that I have seen, saving
only Quebec.

The inhabitants of St. John's may all be said to derive
their living from the sea. Clusters of sealers and
whalers lie anchored in mid-harbour, busy schooners ply
for cod to the Labrador and the Banks, while many of
the business houses have their own private wharves.
Pelts, fur and fish, all the products of the Arctic, find
their way to this emporium of the ocean, and as the sea
is fickle, so trade and prosperity there suffer a more than
common tyranny of ebb and flow. In spring, when the
sealers go forth for their three weeks' season, no one

A FAJLL I'.
I STAJ<

23rd of October, 1903
some weeks earlier, on
the second shooting se
when the Virginia Lai
carried me for a sec
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s and

NDLAND.

foundland on the
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• nenced,
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ing

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their living from ' ~s of sealers and

whalers lie anchored in nr ur. busy schooners ply

for cod to the Labrador and the while many of

the business houses hav te wharves.

Pelts, fur and fish, ah1 th . find

their way to this emporii; -\ - the sea

is fickle, so trade and } >rc than

In s] lien the

no one

i n

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 81

can foretell whether they will each make a small fortune
or lose one ; the hands receive no regular wages, but
every individual a pro raid share of the profits of the
venture. The case is much the same with the cod-
fishery. The sea is the mistress whom all serve, directly
or indirectly ; the financial veins of the community
draw — when she permits it — life and vigour from her
bounties.

A less romantic place than the store of a grocery and
general dealer can hardly be imagined, yet the grocery
stores in St. John's are nothing if not romantic to those
whose eyes are open. Besides flour, bacon, and tea, they
sell there axes, rope, canoes, sealskin boots, all the dozen
necessaries for a trip up the coast or into the interior.
In them you will often see a group of sinewy, weather-
beaten, seafaring men fingering material for women's
gowns and consulting long and gravely on the choice to
be taken home for the wives, sisters, and children away
in the outports. As, then, the sea dominates New-
foundland, it is quite in the nature of things that caribou
and other game should be in charge of the Department
of Marine and Fisheries, and very well indeed that
department does its work.

There certainly still hangs about this oldest of the
British colonies some remnant of the glamour which is
inseparable from the ancient maps that carry marked
upon their parchments such phrases as " Here be many
bears " and " Here be great deer." It was the fame of
the latter that drew me to Newfoundland, for no longer
can any region in the island boast of " many bears." As
to Polar bears, not one remains, although an occasional
specimen is now and then carried into the Straits of Belle
Isle on an ice-floe; some few black bears still exist,

H.C. G

82 HUNTING CAMPS.

however, in the interior. But if the bears have dwindled
in numbers, the great deer still wander there.

The inland solitudes of forest and marsh give sanc-
tuary to huge herds of woodland caribou. The caribou
of Newfoundland carries the finest antlers of any local
variety of the woodland reindeer family. These antlers,
while they lack the beautiful length and curve of the
Barrenland divisions that inhabit the high field of
Norway or the uplands and barren lands of Arctic
America, are remarkable for a weight and density of
horn which places them among the most desirable
trophies that can still fall to the hunter.

Nor can set-up specimens do more than indicate the
beauty of the animal as he appears in his native wilds.
The symmetry of his mighty body and limbs, the dark
face contrasting with the white-maned neck, the broad
brow antlers clasped together like hands in prayer, the
palmated bays and lofty tops, must be seen in their
proper environment to be appreciated. This is, no
doubt, true of all the deer family, but it applies in a
rather special way to the caribou, if only for the reason
that the grime of cities quickly tarnishes the sheen of
these white-necked stags.

The game laws of Newfoundland allow two seasons
to the sportsman. The first covers two months, from
the 1st of August to the 30th of September inclusive,
after which it closes for twenty days, during which the
rut is at its height ; it opens again on the 21st of October
and extends to the 1st of February of the following year.
As a matter of fact, however, only the very early days of
the long second season are of value to anyone in search
of a trophy, as the stags begin to drop their horns as
early as the 1st of November, and by the 10th of that

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 83

month many, if not most, of the finest antlers have
fallen, for it is always the monarchs of the herds who
are the first to lose them, as they are the first to rub the
velvet from them in the opening of September. The
hunter should therefore choose the month of September
or the first three weeks of the later season for his
campaign into the interior of the island.

There are, it may be mentioned, a certain number of
individuals who never attempt to reach the interior,
whose ambition is satisfied by what may be called the
" railway sport," and who possibly deserve any dis-
appointments that fall to their lot. The term " railway
sport " needs elucidation. Twice a year the caribou in
Newfoundland migrate ; in the spring they move from
south to north, and in the autumn travel back from
the north to their winter feeding-grounds. It happens
that the railroad from St. John's to Port-aux-Basques
intersects a main route of migration, and immense
numbers of deer cross the line, the bulk of them
reaching it near a station called Howley. This is
the spot haunted during the earlier part of the shooting
season by the " railway sports," for it is often possible
to shoot the three stags allowed by law without walking
out of sight of the metals. Yearly, as might be
expected, a multitude of immature stags are slaughtered
in this way, and the ears of passengers in the passing
trains may be filled with the report of guns, as if a small
skirmish were taking place !

From this form of shooting all the chief elements of
true sport are eliminated. The numbers of the hunters
(who camp in groups), their method of sitting down
until the deer come to them, and the ineradicable spirit
of competition which leads some men to shoot at

G 2

84 HUNTING CAMPS.

everything they see without much discrimination are all
against the real interests of sport. Besides, the volley-
firing has been going on every September and October
for some years, and in consequence this great herd has
suffered in many ways. In addition to the " railway
sports," the Newfoundland settlers often resort to
Howley to obtain meat for the winter, with the result
that many does and two-year-old stags are killed. The
settlers' reason for going to Howley is both obvious and
natural, as all the meat secured can be placed upon the
train and transported with ease and comfort along the
line to the men's homes. But in the eyes of persons
who voyage some thousands of miles to hunt caribou
the " railway sport " is unlikely to offer many attractions.
Probably they may be inclined to echo the saying
ascribed to a famous hunter : " I have come all this way
to hunt caribou, not to allow caribou to hunt me ! "

Until recently the opinion was commonly held that
all the caribou in the island crossed the line of railway
during their migrations, but since hunters have gone
further afield their observations tend to prove that this
is by no means the case. Mr. F. C. Selous, the first
of these hunters, shot some large stags in the early
September of 1901 close to John's Pond, a spot where
at that date no deer would have been had the theory of
a universal migration been correct.

The deer of Newfoundland may be divided with some
accuracy into three main groups. The best known is
that herd which crosses the railway in its migration,
going north in spring and returning south in September
and October. The second herd, or, rather, vast body of
deer, inhabits all central Newfoundland from St. George's
to Port Blandford and migrates between the railway

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 85

line as a northern limit and the south coast. This herd
is hunted by the Micmac Indians, who have divided
that part of the country into hunting-grounds. These
Indians are a branch of a Nova Scotian tribe, who
transferred themselves to the more northerly island
about the middle of the eighteenth century. They do
not resent the presence of hunters on their especial
districts, though probably if trappers interfered with
their rights there might be trouble. The third herd is
a very small one, and consists of the few deer that still
survive in the Avalon Peninsula, south of St. John's,
and these do not, I believe, migrate at all.

In the vast interior of the country are thousands of
caribou which have probably never been within many
miles of the railroad, and it is towards these herds
that one would wish to make one's way. Here is a
wild and empty land, inhabited only by a few hundred
Indians, uncounted deer, and, for the rest, beaver, a
few black bears, many lynx, foxes and other of the
smaller fur-bearing animals, with, few and far between,
the dying remnant of the wolf-packs, for whose slaughter
a heavy Government bounty is still, I believe, offered,
though very rarely claimed.

By the game laws of the island the shooting licence
costs $50, and now its holder is limited to the killing of
three stags, though under the old licence five stags and
two does were allowed. A resident of the island is
limited to five caribou, but should a Newfoundlander be
employed as guide by a non-resident he is, very wisely,
prohibited from exercising his right during the time he is
acting in that capacity. All guides must have certifi-
cates, but a non-resident guide must also carry a licence
costing $50.

86 HUNTING CAMPS.

Heads are locally judged by the number of points. The
average head seems to carry about twenty-five points ; a
proportion of one in every twenty, thirty points ; while
one stag in every eighty or a hundred may carry forty
points or over. Most of the does grow horns, which
they do not drop until April or May.

I had taken with me to the Labrador a Newfound-
land guide named Jack Wells. On our return he,
fresh from desolations compared with which his native
outport of Glovertown, Alexander Bay, was a populous
centre, rejoiced to set foot again in a land where, as he
said, " a man might see a body now and again what
wasn't a Huskimaw." He left me in St. John's, where
I spent one comfortable night between sheets, while he
went on to find two other men in Glovertown with
whose help it might be possible to " pack " well into the
country from the head of George's Pond.

Jack was afraid that, so late in the season, the best
woodsmen would be already engaged, or away trapping,
a prediction happily not fulfilled, for he was able to secure
his brother Frank — a " foxy man," as Jack described him,
meaning red-haired and bearded, a man with as genial a
temper and as broad a back as ever added to the gaiety
of a camp. With Frank he engaged George Arnold, a
quiet, religious, hard-working individual of fifty or so,
to whom I took a great liking.

While Jack was thus making up the strength of the
party in Glovertown I bought the few necessaries of
which we were short, and also my licence, to which the
Newfoundland Government, in most kind recognition
of my recent attempt to open up the Labrador as a
sporting-field, added the right to kill some extra stags.
Then, in the afternoon, my friend Judge Prowse, who

As he lay. Oct. 30, 1903.

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 87

had interested himself in the success of my trip to an
extent for which I shall always be grateful, drove me to
the station at the upper end of the town by the head
of the estuary. From there the railway runs for
five hundred and thirty-seven miles, first north, then in
a south-westerly curve to Port-aux-Basques on Cabot
Strait, the point of departure for Canadian territory.

The railway is now under the control of the enter-
prising Reid Newfoundland Company. Through forests,
over rivers, beside lakes, the line runs with a station
every dozen miles or so, a station that often consists of
no more than the wooden cabin of the section-man,
whose business it is to keep the permanent way.

My destination, Terra Nova, lies one hundred and
seventy-one miles distant from St. John's, and is reached
in something over eight hours by the express; thus it
was far into the small hours — shortly before three o'clock,
in fact — when the train attendant put his head into my
sleeping-car and informed me that twenty minutes more
would bring me to my station. The train was running
with a roar and a creak between deep woods of spruce,
that flashed at intervals into star-lit waters. But at that
hour, between night and morning, one thinks little
of the charms of scenery, the more especially as there
was barely time to dress before we began to slacken
speed and finally to draw up. My baggage, my "camp"
as it is called in Newfoundland, was dropped out and
stacked beside the metals, the conductor's voice echoed
through the frosty air, and the train swung away out of
sight, the louder clang as it disappeared telling of the
trestle bridge across the head of Terra Nova Lake.

I found refuge in the single wooden house of Tim
Hawco, the section-man. Lonely as was the spot, it

88 HUNTING CAMPS.

knew nothing of the silences of solitude, for in the little
room of the railway agent the telegraph machine never
seemed to cease its clatter for ten minutes, day or
night. Such was Terra Nova in 1903, but since then a
lumber mill and the men employed in its working have
altered the place a good deal.

I found that my men had not yet arrived from
Alexander Bay, but was not much surprised, as they
were to come by an "accommodation." The trains
run by the Reid Company are of two kinds — the
express and the accommodation. How the latter came
by its name I do not know, unless it be that it is the
duty of an accommodation train to accommodate ;
but, to judge from the opinions freely offered by its
passengers, it does not altogether achieve success in
this respect. Its speed rarely averages fifteen miles an
hour, with further delays of stoppages to collect or to
set down freight, or to allow the express to pass —
delays which sometimes run into hours, a hardship not
a little accentuated by the fact that nothing in the
shape of food is procurable on board. There is, I have
heard, a rule on the Reid line that any train twelve
hours behind the scheduled time becomes a special
— a great many accommodations must become
specials ! Many people, especially sportsmen, grumble,
which is, after all, rather absurd, as they always have
the alternative of the express, which, considering the
route, is punctual and certainly most comfortable. It
would be just as reasonable of a traveller in England who,
choosing a goods train, felt himself aggrieved because it
failed to run mile for mile with the Scotch Express. But
it is the fashion to deride the accommodation ; and what
has justice to do with a time-honoured joke ?

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 89

On reaching the station-house I turned into my
sleeping bag for what remained of the night, and woke
to find it raining. I went down through the rain to
the banks of the Terra Nova River. The dawn was fiill
of the scent of wet woods, for the wind was blowing
across the water. To my right the river, broad and
peaceful, wound away under the gaunt trestle bridge,
between flat green country darkened here and there
with woodland ; to the west spread the lake, dotted
with rocks at the nearer end. It was pleasant to
stand there and think that to the westward lay the
centre of Newfoundland, where no man lived, and
that, although this is the oldest colony of Great Britain,
it is possible even to-day, within eight or ten days'
travel of the railway, to walk into almost unexplored
country.

The landscape is covered with a network of lakes,
surrounded in almost every instance by woods ; it is
intersected by marshes and broken by the knobs and
ridges of the barrens. These barrens show great spreads
of sulphur-coloured reindeer moss, and a loose scatter-
ing of trees, which gather here and there into clumps,
or " drogues," of spruce, of juniper, or of birch. Few
people have invaded these solitudes. Sportsmen camp
there in the autumn, and settlers from Alexander Bay,
who come to collect their winter store of meat ; but
the latter, for reasons of easier transport, keep as near
to the railroad as possible. Prospectors for timber and
Indians have lit their fires in some of these wild spots, but
though the lumber camps are being pushed further and
further into the interior, still a great portion of it remains
to-day uninhabited, trodden only by the deer and the
lynx, an occasional bear, or coveys of willow-grouse ;

90 HUNTING CAMPS.

but these birds are found in much larger numbers more
to the south.

Two successful hunting trips had already taken Terra
Nova as their point of departure, one being that of Mr.
Selous, to which I have already alluded; and in the
following year that of Mr. J. G. Millais. Both these
had been September trips, and it yet remained to be
seen what luck a hunter would meet with who spent
October in approximately the same district. I had
planned to go some little distance above the head of
George's Pond in canoes, and there to "take the
country." We carried provisions for four weeks, a
change of clothes apiece, and our sleeping gear.

After breakfasting, I spent the morning in doing the
half-dozen odd jobs that always gather about the outset
of a journey. Life contains many good moments, but
few, I think, better worth living than those anticipatory
ones passed in making ready to start for new, or, indeed,
for familiar, hunting-grounds.

The train from the north was some hours late, and
did not come in till one o'clock, and when it arrived
I learned that a canoe on which I had relied, and
which Jack was to bring from Glovertown, was
unfortunately not available. This might very easily
have caused me a long delay had it not been for the
fortunate and accidental presence of a large flat-
bottomed boat which belonged to an acquaintance of
Jack Wells. About three o'clock, or a little later, all
was prepared, and we set out, shoving off into the
shallow waters of the Terra Nova, Jack Wells and
myself pulling the big flat, the other two men
in charge of a canvas canoe. The wind had veered
and blown away the clouds of the morning, and

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 91

soon the last vestiges of civilisation, the gaunt trestle
bridge and the boat-house, disappeared behind us and
we were fairly off. I wanted to push on as far as
possible before dark, hoping to take advantage of the
good weather, for the two lakes through which our
course lay are often, at this season, impracticable for
days together for such small craft as the canoe. But
although the evening had settled to fine, the dark came
early, and soon we were obliged to camp at a spot
called Woody Island, which lies at the eastern end of
Terra Nova Lake.

The next morning we were up before the dawn, but
the weather had changed during the night, and no
sooner were we afloat than the sky became overcast,
the north-west wind rose, bringing with it squalls of
snow, and, a much more awkward fact to face, showed
a tendency to veer still more to the west, a develop-
ment which would deprive us of the shelter of the
wooded northern shore, if it did not, as was likely,
altogether prevent our progress. In such weather the
big boat had the best of it, for the lop of the water
greatly retarded the canoe, while we, although we took
our share of the lake aboard, were able to make a
straighter course.

At the head of the Terra Nova Lake, where Frank
Wells and his partner, Robert Brooking, had some traps,
we espied a lynx, which had dragged a trap down to the
sandy shore. We landed and one of the men killed it,
leaving it for Brooking to skin on his next rounds. We
passed from Terra Nova Lake into George's Pond and
rowed up it, hugging the shore, beneath the dense
forests of spruce and juniper which descend almost to
the water ; and sundown found us, the lake safely astern,

92 HUNTING CAMPS.

making our way up a dark and rather swiftly-running
brook, where the trees rocked and moaned above our
heads in a manner that proved how lucky we had been
in getting across the lakes before the squall rose to its
strength.

We had some little trouble with the unwieldy flat
boat on account of the current, but rowed about three
miles up the brook before we made our camp and
pitched a floored tent on the bank. This tent, though
heavy to carry on a journey, is very useful as a base
camp — for which purpose it was taken — as it is made in
one piece, and, except in the case of flood, nothing can
get wet inside it. During the day we had seen little
life, only an eagle and two red-throated divers.

On the morning of the 23rd, having done much in
the way of preparation overnight, we were able to
break camp fairly early, and, having drawn the boat and
canoes from the water, we shouldered our packs, con-
taining bedding, tent, flour, tea and sugar for a week,
and " took the country." My intention was to push on
to Doctor's Pond, where I meant to remain and hunt
with Jack Wells, while the other men travelled back to
our base for more provisions.

We began at once to enter upon the barrens and
marshes characteristic of the interior. Nowadays
parties are yearly pushing further into newer hunting-
grounds. But in the old pre-railway days Sir William
Kennedy with the rifle and Judge Prowse (famous as
the historian of Newfoundland) with the shot-gun were
the pioneers of Newfoundland sport.

Our first objective was a spot called Sir William
White way's Drogue. The way to it led us continually
upwards through patches of woodland and across smal

Spying.

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 93

marshes. Two or three times we came on tracks of
good stags, and quite a score of smaller animals must
have passed along one of the deer-trails at no very
distant date. Some three miles of packing brought us
to our destination.

While the midday meal was preparing Jack Wells went
off with the telescope to the edge of the wood, where he
climbed a tree in order to overlook a large yellow marsh
which stretched ahead of us. This marsh was dotted
with drogues of various sizes, some being in thick
clumps, some scanty and half- transparent. By the time
I followed Jack he told me he thought he saw a gleam
of white behind some spruces that might be the neck of
a stag. Seeing that the stag, if one it were, must be
lying down and would probably not rise till later, I left
Jack to watch and went back to the camp for some tea.
I had scarcely reached it when Jack came running after
me with the news that the white patch had moved, and
that he was almost sure it was a good stag caribou, and
he asked me if I would like to follow with my rifle at
once, or wait for my tea ! I relinquished my tea, and,
going back with Jack, climbea'the look-out tree, but it
was still impossible to see more than that gleam of the
white neck behind a small group of spruces. To get
within shot we were obliged to make a long detour, but
two or three low thickets of bush gave us pretty good
cover. We were thus able to creep to within about
two hundred yards of where the stag lay, when I
stopped to use the telescope again, in order to see as
much as I could of him. But this was no more than
the tops of his antlers, which, however, appeared to be
fairly well developed. We judged that he might be a
thirty-pointer, and as the drogue behind which he was

94 HUNTING CAMPS.

lying afforded excellent protection from view I managed
to get extraordinarily close. We were within certainly
fifty yards of him before he began to grow at all sus-
picious, and perhaps not more than forty before he got up.
His tops were still the only part of him visible, but it
was quite clear that if he happened to make off up-wind
there would be no chance of a shot. On the other hand,
if I fired at once, I should merely have to choose the
thinnest part of the twigs and branches that concealed
him and fire through them. Accordingly I fixed on
the clearest spot I could see, and fired. At the shot he
bolted out on the north side of the thicket just like a
gigantic rabbit, and tumbled head over heels to a second
bullet in the neck.

He turned out to be a heavy and large-bodied stag.
His head carried twenty-five points, but was much
knocked about by his love battles, several points having
been broken off his horns. This is the case with so
many stags in the October season that it is often diffi-
cult to secure an absolutely perfect head at that time of
year. Had this particular animal been shot early in
September, his would have been a very good trophy ;
still, I was pleased enough to have secured a fair stag
so early. We left him to lie while we returned to camp
to finish the meal of tea and hard biscuit his presence
had interrupted.

Later Jack Wells and I went back to take off the
head and head-skin, while the other men made up their
packs and started to walk over the marsh to Beaver
Pond, where we meant to camp for the night.

The following dawn was dull and grey, a heavy mist
hung over the face of the marshes, so that it was diffi-
cult to see two hundred yards, and impossible to see

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 95

three hundred in any direction. This mist, of course,
entirely prevented our using the telescope, and was very
unfavourable for stalking. Nevertheless, I went out
with Jack Wells, and we had not gone very far before
we saw a couple of does with one fawn feeding along in
our direction. We sat down to watch them, when all
at once they stopped feeding and began approaching us
at a swift walk. We remained as still as the stones
amongst which we sat, and they passed within fifteen
paces before the leading doe winded our track. She
leaped into the air, and all three dashed back, passing us
again at an even less distance than before, and then were
lost in the mist to the westward.

During the day we covered some twenty miles, and
came across rather more than fifty does and only one
stag, which carried a head of about twenty points. We
stalked him to within two hundred yards and had a
good look at him. His horns were long and fairly
heavy, but he carried only one brow antler. The next
day was Sunday, and we could see small parties of deer
continually crossing the marsh to the east of our camp.
There were one or two stags amongst them, but not
very large ones.

For some time after this the weather alternated
between frost and " sleepy " snow. We had one or two
unpleasant days of sleet, but the sun generally showed
himself for a longer or shorter time between morning
and evening. During this period our camp was set in
a drogue beside the small lake known as Doctor's Pond.
We made our march there through a storm of sleet and
snow blowing in our faces all the way, covering stones
and bog-holes from our sight and rendering walking
with a heavy pack disagreeable.

96 HUNTING CAMPS.

As we neared the pond we saw two sizable stags,
but neither good enough to shoot. After a while the
weather cleared and became glorious, the camp was
comfortable, and in fact everything went well with
us with one exception — I was beginning to be very
uneasy about securing a big stag. I had at that time
seen seventeen, and shot the best one of them, but
he was no more than a fair specimen. While in this
camp we hunted one day in the lower country, which
was full of deer travelling south, for the autumn migra-
tion was by no means at an end. The courting season
was over, however, for we often saw three or four large
stags feeding in amity with does round them.

All this time we never had a dull moment, and rarely
went out without seeing either does or stags. We were
often able to approach within one hundred yards, and
many hours were spent watching the deer through the
telescope. The average stag seemed to carry some
twenty to twenty-five points, but of all we had yet seen
not one presented two good brows, though a couple of
them appeared to carry a number of points. But, as far
as caribou are concerned, points mean very little. For
instance, we picked up a cast antler showing fifteen
points on one brow alone, and yet this was a poor and
weakly-grown horn.

In all directions deer-paths intersected the marshes,
and we came upon some very large tracks. But a
large track is by no means to be depended on as
indicating a good head.

The 28th of October was a beautiful day, clear and
brilliant, with a north-west wind and a covering of
light snow lying over the face of the country. I had
arranged that Frank Wells and Arnold should again

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 97

go back to the base camp and bring up some more
provisions ; while Jack Wells and I remained to hunt
towards Island Pond, a lake lying to the westward.
On the previous evening we had seen several herds,
and hoped that we had perhaps found a large body
of the migrating deer.

However, when we set out after breakfast in the
direction of Island Pond, we walked a couple of miles,
seeing nothing save a couple of does. The features of
the country now began to change somewhat. Large
hummocky expanses of barren crowned with boulders
spread ahead of us ; there was less marshland, though
from the hills over which we were walking we could
see two or three sheets of water partially surrounded
by trees. Small clumps of juniper and of birch, spruce,
and pine were scattered over the landscape.

It was just past ten o'clock when we saw the first
stag of that day standing on the ridge of a barren ;
half-a-dozen does were lying on the ground near him.
As the wind happened to be favourable and the cover
good, there was little difficulty in approaching within two
hundred and fifty yards of him, but, to our disappoint-
ment, his head, which had looked very well against the
sky-line, proved on closer inspection to be merely
average, and after watching him descend to a marsh
we climbed higher up the little hill we were on, and
from there I descried some deer, including a tolerable
stag, lying down in some soft ground to the south-
west.

I was watching him intently, when Jack Wells said,
" There is another stag on the hill over there. I think
he is a good one."

It must be owned that at this time, although knowing

H.C. H

98 HUNTING CAMPS.

myself to be in great luck to have come upon the deer
in such numbers, I was, as has been said, rather dis-
satisfied with the fact that, amongst all the stags I had
seen, not one carried a head unquestionably above the
average.

The caribou to which Jack had just drawn my atten-
tion was close upon three-quarters of a mile away on
the slope of an opposing barren. The sun had gone in
for the moment, so that it was not easy to make him
out with certainty. But after a little the cloud blew
away, and in the brightening light T looked again, and
saw a sight that filled me with hope, for the sun was
shining and glinting upon the big clubbed top of his
left antler. Here, undoubtedly, at last was a really
splendid stag. For some time we sat and watched him
feeding leisurely along the rough shoulder of the ridge,
and when at length he disappeared into the dip on the
farther side we set off at once.

The direction of the wind necessitated a long walk
which led us across a particularly wet and shaky bit of
bog, and then up over the first of a series of low rolling
barrens. Here we attempted to spy the stag again, but
for a time we could not locate him. At length, how-
ever, we caught sight of him coming over a slope
further on. He was now facing us, standing up
magnificently against the sky-line. As soon as he passed
over the brow of the barren into the hollow we
scrambled as quickly as we were able to the base of the
one we were on, and began to run, for there appeared
to be every chance that he would feed into an unstalk-
able position.

We crawled up and hid behind some stones in a line
parallel to that in which the stag was feeding. All this

Caribou Stag shot Oct. 28th, 1903.

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 99

time he was moving slowly on, passing behind a small
group of five or six bare jumpers, and we could see him
nuzzling in the deep reindeer moss, his great antlers
swaying up and down. He next partially turned away
from us, and we took the opportunity of creeping into
a depression at the foot of the hummock on which the
stones lay and, pausing behind a small bank of moss,
took another look at him through the telescope. Owing
to his position it was still impossible to distinguish
much beyond the fact that his horns were exceedingly
heavy, but even on that count alone there could be no
question about its being a grand head. He was now
feeding on a mound encircled by a depression, much as
a saucer surrounds a cup. We made our way along
this depression and then upwards to a boulder within
one hundred and twenty yards of a spot he must pass,
and there we waited. Presently the big stag finished
his nuzzling in the moss and slowly walked out into full
view. I could perfectly see his head now, with its
heavy, wide-spread horns, the one clubbed top and the
other top with its five points.

He was right above us, and at the shot from the
Mannlicher he walked two or three paces forward and
crashed down, rolling over. We at once ran up the
hill, and found the bullet had entered under his chest,
coming out through his back. I had known all the
time that he was an uncommonly good stag, but I was
not prepared for the weight of horn resting upon the
moss. He carried thirty-five large points, but the
antlers, which were extraordinarily wide and heavy,
were uneven, the right being clubbed, as I have said.
He was undoubtedly an old stag, and was certainly
going back in the perfection of his horns.

H 2

100 HUNTING CAMPS.

After this, very pleased with our good fortune, we
went off to our lunch, which we took in the shelter of a
small drogue, filling our kettles from a shallow upland
pond, blown into a thousand ripples by the wind.
During the meal a heavy cloud drifted up, and snow
began to fall thickly. For a while the sky to windward
remained bleak and drab-coloured, but presently a golden
belt of light, growing momentarily broader, showed on
the horizon, and the cloud passed away, leaving us once
again in cold, blue weather.

After lunch we returned to where the stag was lying,
and Jack and I had just opened our knives to take off
the head and neck-skin, when I spied a number of deer
across a low valley to the north, moving along the hill-
side fronting us. We had a good look at them, and
counted a score or more of does, and no less than four
stags, all seemingly with good heads.

We followed them at once. The approach, owing to
the position of the does, was awkward, but a good deal
comes to him who waits, and finally we succeeded in
crossing the valley unperceived and crawled in among
some boulders about two hundred yards from the four
stags, all of which were lying down. We had hardly
arrived there before five does and a young stag came up
over the shoulder of the barren and passed along within
twenty yards of where we lay. This party, however,
after giving us an agony of apprehension lest they
should lie down between us and the large stags, fed
gradually away from us until they disappeared.

We now carefully examined each of the four stags.
All carried good heads, the best displaying, as far as I
could judge, upwards of thirty points. Meantime, a
fifth stag that had hitherto remained hidden, having

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 101

probably been lying down behind a clump of juniper,
emerged into view and began to make straight for the
spot where we were concealed. His head was distinctly
superior to that of any of his four companions, and I
had ample opportunity to inspect it while he came slowly
towards us. The antlers, it is true, were not very large,
but exceedingly symmetrical, the bays being particu-
larly fine and curved inwards. I reckoned that he
carried thirty-five points, more or less, but quite possibly
more.

The wind was so strong that we were able to indulge
in a council of war as to whether I should shoot him, a
course which Jack strongly advised. However, in con-
sideration of the splendid stag I had already secured,
which had looked about half as large again as this one,
I finally decided to pass him, especially as he appeared
to me to be a young animal, despite his fine horns. We
watched him for upwards of an hour, and once he was
within sixty yards of us. All I can say is that some
day that stag will carry a head worth travelling a long
distance to obtain.

At length we crept away and retraced our steps to
the big stag, and when we saw him again Jack agreed
with me that I had done well to leave the thirty-five
pointer. Having finished the skinning, we set out in
the direction of camp, but had not gone very far when
we saw more deer to the eastward. As before we stalked
them, and as before we got very near, only to find,
however, that the best of them was inferior to the young
stag I had spared earlier. So we started once again for
camp. I do not think the recollection of our walk of
that evening will ever fade from my memory, and I
make no apology for endeavouring to call up the scene

102 HUNTING CAMPS.

before my reader's eye. It was one instinct with the
spirit of Nature as she reigns among the marshes and
barrens of Newfoundland. The wind was blowing out
of a stormy sunset, swaying the dwarfed trees, sweeping
over the morasses, now red and sulphur yellow with
their autumn tints, and over isolated ridges of barren
where dark crags stood up among the reindeer moss.
All around the circle of sight companies of deer were
moving, and as we doubled a curve of wood one fine
young stag with red horns caught wind of us, bounded
into the air with fear, and fled snorting ; then for a
moment he halted on the darkening sky-line, horns, head,
and great white mane outlined. We tramped on, and
soon the dusk fell, and presently through it we made
out the flame of the birch tree logs of our camp fire,
and arrived there to find that Frank and Arnold had
returned.

Owing to the necessity of fixing and cleaning the
head-skin of the large stag and some other pressing
bits of work, we could only make time for half a day's
hunting on the following afternoon. We set out about
one o'clock in a westerly direction, aiming for a locality
known as Ayres' Marsh. I had now set my standard
very high, having made up my mind not to fire at any
stag unless he carried a really remarkable head. The
sun was shining through snow clouds over the wide
marsh, making some of its pools glow to gold and
crimson. Many companies of deer were in sight, some
blurred and in shadow, others gleaming snow-white in
the brilliant breaks of light.

Our sport on that occasion does not demand any
detailed description, consisting as it did of several stalks
and a great deal of observation of distant stags through

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 103

the telescope. We did not see anything " worth giving
a gun to," as the Newfoundland expression has it.

Those were splendid days, their pleasures rendered
the more vivid by memories of hunting in less favoured
countries. Early in the morning, while the wood in
which our camp lay was still an etching in black-and-
white, the men were stirring, and soon the warm and
cheerful camp fire would be crackling at the mouth of
the tent. Followed the sound of Frank's footsteps as
he crunched down to the lake edge through the frost
and light snow. Then the kettle was boiled and a cup
of tea made ; after which I rose to complete the rough
toilet of the woods before breakfast was announced to
be ready.

On one occasion, however, this routine was altered.
I had just been awakened by hearing the men moving
about the fire, and Frank was in the act of pouring out
my morning tea, when there was a sound of running
footsteps snapping through the frost, and Jack burst
through the trees.

"There is a big stag, Mr. Prichard, crossing the
'mesh'!"

We were at this time encamped in a drogue of
considerable size that reached down to the shores of
the inevitable " pond." All about it lay a wide net-
work of marshes much grown over with that wonderful
soft reindeer moss and patched with coarse, yellowish
grass.

" Stag's nearly past," added Jack, panting.

No time remained for dressing, so, pulling on a pair
of Eskimo boots and a coat, in the pocket of which
were some cartridges, I picked up the Mannlicher and
followed at speed in Wells' tracks. We were soon at

104 HUNTING CAMPS.

the outskirts of the drogue, and there, sure enough, in
the wake of a band of does, was what appeared to be a
fine stag.

As far as my experience goes, there are few things
harder to judge at a distance than the size of a caribou
head. For, firstly, antlers are likely to look very much
larger carried grandly on the live animal than they
sometimes turn out to be afterwards, when the deer
lies on the ground ; secondly, the angle at which one
happens to view the head is a matter of importance, for
it looks infinitely better from some points of view than
from others.

The stag I am writing of seemed a very fair one ; the
wind was favourable, the only difficulty being the fact
that he had already passed and was travelling at good
speed over the moss and grass. We waited until he
was screened by one of those small spinneys to which
the stalker in Newfoundland owes so great a debt, and
then we commenced to run. Owing to my having had
no time to put on the stockings and vamps that are
worn with Eskimo boots, these latter were very uncom-
fortable, and finally came off in some soft ground,
sending their wearer head-foremost into a shallow hole
full of ooze !

But to return to the day's routine. After breakfast
was over I usually took my rifle and, with Jack or
alone, set forth and spent the day hunting, sometimes
seeing the stags on the open barrens, sometimes follow-
ing them into the woods, in the sunny spaces of which
they loved to lie and enjoy their rest. At midday we
had our lunch of tea, bread, and smoked trout, and then
hunted till dark, often making our way back to the
camp by moonlight, to find the evening meal waiting

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 105

for us by the fire. After that came successive pipes, the
forecasts, meteorological and otherwise, for the morrow,
then the sleeping bags and splendid, dreamless sleep.

The 30th of October was another of my best days, for
I met with numerous squads of deer trooping south-
wards. During the middle hours of the day these deer
lay down among the patches of wood which surround
Island Pond. Some description of the place is neces-
sary. I cannot say how wide or how long this pond
may be, for I never had a full view of it, part being
always hidden by the trees clustering upon the many
islets which, as in the case of nearly all pieces of water
in this district, dot its waters. On the day I write of
it was covered with a thin sheet of ice. The morning
turned out fine, cold, and invigorating, and we were
early away from camp. We walked some miles in a
northerly direction, passing the spot where we had
killed the big caribou two days before. On this
occasion we did not see any stags until we were some
three miles from camp, when with the glass we descried
a pair of antlers moving above some bushes on the sky-
line. The animal to which they belonged was evidently
feeding, while between us and him lay a valley and a
rise covered with woods. He was on a barren beyond
these, and was sheltered by some small spruces that
prevented our getting a very good view of him. So we
descended into the valley and found a deer-path leading
through the trees and glades. This we followed, and
were cautiously crawling behind the spruces when the
stag nearly ran into us as he came mooning along the
very track we were on. He carried a fair head, but one
brow was very poor, so I passed him, as well as two
smaller stags.

106 HUNTING CAMPS.

We now climbed an eminence that commanded a
stretch of likely-looking country, all barrens red with
moss and patched with trees. Here we sat down and
kept a good look-out. Shortly we saw the white shine
of a deer's neck moving among some trees ahead of us.
Taking advantage of the fact that we were well screened
from sight, we ran across the intervening spaces and lay
down in a thicket.

I must say here that, in my opinion, more caribou
are lost through " pottering round " than in any other
way. If you watch a stag cross your track, you see
him leap up into the air and he is gone for ever ; or
let him get the wind of you a mile off, and your chance
is generally over. On the other hand, the eyesight of
the caribou is poor. Midway between his sense of smell
and power of sight comes his hearing, which is neither
very good nor very bad in open ground, though earlier
in the year he is a hard beast to kill in the green timber.

But to return to the stalk. We were still lying in
the bush when, about two hundred yards away, a doe,
old as the damsel of the evening star, came into view,
followed at no great distance by other does. Behind
them the bushes parted and gave up an old and ragged
stag. The whole party passed along quite close, not a
hundred yards from us. The old stag had a good wild
head, but the left top was represented by a single
jagged, broken spike, so of course I let him go in
peace.

All the morning we loitered among the barrens round
Island Pond, and saw two or three more stags, but none
worth shooting ; indeed, I had made up my mind that
nothing under forty points, or its equivalent in weight
or length, should tempt me.

A FALL HUXTIXG TRIP. 107

At last we went to the edge of the water and boiled
our kettle and ate our bread and smoked trout. While
we were doing so a heavy fall of " sleepy snow " came
on, and the bad weather looked as if it had set in for
the day. But it proved better than we hoped. When
the snow ceased we moved on, but presently took
shelter again. By this time it was growing late, and as
we were six or seven miles from camp I was about to
suggest that we should turn our faces towards it, when
Jack proposed going to the brow of the next rise and
having one last spy round.

Over the rise we saw eleven does, one small stag, and
another partially shut in by scrub. We looked for some
time with the glass, but could not get a satisfactory
view of this stag, when a third, which had been lying
behind him, rose and thrust out his head between the
spruce boughs. A glance showed it to be a magnifi-
cent one. He gradually came out and lay down again
in the lee of another cluster of spruces, giving me the
chance of examining him more closely. Through the
glass I could see that he had, at any rate, one very
large brow. Then he raised his head and showed great
palmated bays, a large curling spike behind each. He
was of a peculiarly white colour, with antlers of a much
lighter red than common.

I decided at once to shoot him if I could, which
seemed very doubtful, as he was not favourably placed
for stalking ; besides which a young stag and two does
had moved along and lain down on a hillside about
one hundred and fifty yards to our right and command-
ing our position among the cranberry roots. We were
not more than two hundred and fifty yards from our
quarry, but he was lying down in such a position that

108 HUNTING CAMPS.

the only chance was a shot at his neck. About eighty
yards from us, and nearer the stag, stood a thin cluster
of jumpers, and to this I crawled across a very wet
swamp. Again I spied through the telescope, and was
confirmed in my opinion. The stag carried a glorious
head, furnished with a forest of points.

A few flakes of snow came floating down, and I
began to wonder whether it would not be wiser to
take a shot from where I then was, but decided against
doing so as my hands had almost lost feeling, owing to
the long, cold crawl through the marsh. Between me
and the stag, but partly in view of the young stag and
does, was a ridge with little rising hummocks. I crept
slowly to the shelter it afforded, and, having rubbed
some warmth into my hands, prepared to fire. I was
afraid to make the stag stand up, as he had cover on all
sides of him, so I had to shoot him as he lay. He
never moved at all, for the bullet, entering his neck,
severed the spinal cord. He was a truly splendid fellow,
carrying forty-three points, a white stag with a brown
back, but unusually white face, ears, and mane. I found
a small abscess in his forehead, caused probably by the
horn of a rival.

With the death of this stag I had killed the outside
number allowed to the holder of an ordinary licence,
but finding myself in the centre of the migration I
resolved to remain a few days longer and make use of
the extra permit kindly granted me by the Govern-
ment. On the following day, therefore, we broke camp
at Doctor's Pond, where we had been so fortunate, and
moved on in a westerly direction to the head of Island
Pond ; there we camped in a drogue of spruce which
stood in a dominating position.

Head of Caribou shot Oct. 30, 1903.

A FALL HUNTING TRIP.

109

At this time, and during the rest of my stay in the
country, I saw deer in great numbers every day. At
first I counted as accurately as I could, but later I
came across so many that I only numbered the stags
which I clearly distinguished to be shootable.

There seems little reason to doubt that from the
27th of October to the 5th of November I was in the
middle of at least a portion of the migrating deer.
The following is the table of the caribou I saw on
the trip : —

Stags.

1

1

Oct. 23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

„ 31

Nov. 1

,, 2

3

2

4

10

12

18
10

11

10

17

15

8

2

Total 121

Does.
2
51
16
18
102
110
160
97

Total to date 556

Did not count.

Speaking roughly, I should say that I saw during the
trip at least 1,500 does, as on the last day of October
and the first three days of November I sighted them in
such numbers that I had to give up the attempt to keep
count. I afterwards learned from Jack Wells, who

110 HUNTING CAMPS.

was in the country again late in November, that even
towards the end of the month the deer were still there,
though they were less numerous.

Notwithstanding that the general trend of the move-
ments of the deer was westerly, there was no very
decided, or, rather, direct, progression towards that
point, the caribou wandering about in small parties of
from three to six-and-thirty, which was the largest
number I counted together. No doubt in that year
the herds " took a shift," as my men called it, as neither
before nor since, within their experience, had there been
such an invasion of the Terra Nova country.

I am tempted here to give a short extract from my
diary of the days that followed.

" Nov. 1. Last night a great display of Northern
Lights. Hunted to-day towards Deer Lake* Narrows,
and saw ten stags, two of which had lost one horn, but
one of them still retained a stump which was about four
inches long. The morning was sunny, but in the after-
noon, just as we were spying some deer, a mist came
driving up before the southerly wind. I had my glass
at the time on a one-horned fellow — not many points,
but a very large and heavy stag. He vanished into the
mist. During the remainder of the day it was too
thick to see much.

" Nov. 2. Went round crossing Deer Lake Brook
and up on a high marshy barren, which seemed to
stretch for miles to the north, full of black morass.
Snow and sleet driving before a heavy wind. Saw
many does and seventeen stags, none particularly fine.
The other side of Deer Lake the country seems to be all

* Mr. J. G. Millais was the first sportsman to visit this lake, which
has since been named after him.

A FALL HUNTING TRIP. Ill

upland marshes and woods, that is before you come up
on to the ' big country ' that lies beyond it. At this
time of year the stags seem to prefer the hard ground,
the rocky, mossy barrens which Wells calls ' sandy
ridges.' I do not therefore think the other side of the
lake would be very good ground at this time of year.

" We then visited the barrens north of our camp ;
after a long hunt, saw a stag with curiously deformed
antlers, no bays, but, as it appeared, two separate horns
growing like a V almost from the coronet. While we
were watching him a doe suddenly dashed into sight,
followed by a stag with what looked like a head full of
points. I thought him very good, and killed him as he
galloped by at about one hundred yards. Thirty points
only, but a very pretty head.

•• Nov. 3. Hunted towards John's Pond, and walked
about twenty-five miles. Saw fifteen stags and the
largest number of does I have yet seen in any one day.
I think the really fine stags are very rare, one in a
hundred or so. Cold, cloudy weather. All this tune,
although I have seen so many deer, I have observed
practically nothing else on the barrens. Only one fox
and one willow-grouse. "

The next day, the 4th of November, was my last full
hunting day, as I wished to catch the next fortnightly
mail to England. Jack Wells and I made a start in
the rain long before it was light enough to see. I had
decided to hunt the country on the southern side of
the lake, which we had spied from across the lake on
the previous day. Although the telescope had not
shown much of the kind of ground which the stags at
that season seemed to prefer, I fancied that the caribou,
after passing through the woods near the lake, might be

112 HUNTING CAMPS.

found travelling across the open marshes ; and in this
supposition we shortly proved that we were not mis-
taken. To quote Jack Wells, the country was " fair
tore up " with deer-paths, and as soon as it became light
we began to see deer in small parties, all heading west
over the marsh.

During the morning and afternoon we sighted six
stags, all distinctly shootable beasts, but none with a head
as good as the poorest of the last three which I had shot.
Indeed, it was not until within an hour of sundown, and
when we were many miles west of the camp, that we
saw through the telescope a stag that appeared to both
of us to carry excellent horns. But the difficulty of
judging a living caribou's head was brought home to me
once more on this occasion. I first spied it at a distance
of about five hundred yards, and through the glass it
struck me as being most generously palmated, for we
were not able to see daylight between brows and bays.

The stalk was a long and interesting one, made
somewhat difficult by the direction of the wind and
several very watchful does. I at length reached a spot
within one hundred yards of the stag, which was lying
down facing me. At this angle the head looked so
light that I decided not to shoot, and had already
rejoined Wells, when one of the does took fright and
ran off, followed by the stag. Broadside on, the horns
looked better than ever. I had put my rifle over at
safety, so that it took a moment or two to rectify this,
as well as to find a clear place among the cover through
which to shoot.

By this time the stag was some two hundred yards
away, splashing across a marsh with the water flying all
round him. At the shot, however, to my delight he

A FALL HUXTIXG TRIP. 113

staggered, slowed to a walk, and presently stopped
altogether. As I was sure that he was mortally hit, I
very foolishly attempted to approach closer, for I had
but a couple of cartridges left — several having fallen
from my pocket during the stalk — with the result that
he began to move off again, and in doing this he crossed
our wind, whereupon his fresh alarm seemed to give
him an access of strength. Luckily for me he chose to
disappear behind a long tongue of woods, and by dint
of running I was able to arrive just in time to salute
him with another bullet as he ran clear of the trees.
This shot broke his back, and we were soon beside him.
I now saw that there was only one bullet in the animal,
the first having struck his horn and stunned him. The
peculiar shape of his antlers, which curved forwards and
downwards in a very unusual fashion, bringing the
whole mass of horn together, explained the impression
of excessive palmation that we had at first observed.
The trophy was, however, a very beautiful one of thirty-
one points, so that the chance shot was, after all. a
matter for congratulation. With the death of this stag
I finished my hunting for the year.

On this trip I was extremely fortunate in striking as
I did the great scattered herd of deer as they were
travelling south. I thus had the most acceptable
opportunity of studying and watching them for hours
at a time. By climbing a tree or mounting to a point
of high ground it was possible to spy over a great
expanse of country, and, having found a company of
deer, to follow and stalk any stag which seemed to be
worth the trouble.

I suppose I stalked quite forty stags to within range,
and it was frequently the stalk that did not end in a

H.C. i

114 HUNTING CAMPS

shot which proved in its details to be the most interest-
ing. With a reasonable time to spare, seeing stags
almost every day and stalking them, even if the stalk
rarely ends in a shot, what can a hunter want more ?
Of course there is a great temptation to shoot — first,
because caribou heads are, as I have said, hard to judge,
and also because it takes some self-confidence and belief
in one's luck to allow (say) a thirty-pointer to depart
when within easy range in the hope that the next day or
the next week will produce a head of forty points.

Central Newfoundland is a wild country enough, and
a country that grows upon one. The term " barrens "
is liable to give a wrong impression to those who have
never seen them. The barrens are, in their way, most
beautiful, with their delicate general colouring of pink,
sulphur and brown. Imagine the open uplands tinged
with red and white and yellow mosses and red-leaved
shrubs, through which scores of boulders thrust out
their dark heads, and here and there patches of ever-
green spruce, pine, and black firs showing every twig
against the pale blue of the sky. It is, without question,
a fascinating country that tempts one to return again
and again.

CHAPTER V.

OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER HUNTING NEAR MIDDLE

RIDGE.

THE shooting season of 1904 I had originally intended
to spend in Canada in the hope of securing a moose,
an ambition that I had entertained for a long time.
Eventually I changed my plans for various reasons, the
chief among them being the wish to return to Newfound-
land for the purpose of hunting in the country which
lies in the neighbourhood of Middle Ridge, a region
which, I believe, had never been penetrated save by the
Indians. It happened that early in 1904 I mentioned
this district and the good sport I had enjoyed on its
confines to Captain E. G. Wynyard, who wished to
accompany me if ever I revisited it. I therefore gave
up the idea of moose for the time being and com-
menced to make arrangements for a return to New-
foundland by buying, through Mr. Henry Blair, of
Water Street, St. John's, two excellent canoes.

I also wrote, through the same admirable agent,
to try and engage the same men who had accom-
panied me in the previous year, and was glad to
find that Jack and Frank Wells were available ; but
George Arnold had left the island for the summer,
having gone with his sons on a cod-fishing venture to
the Labrador coast, and we therefore engaged Walter
and Sam Dewey, of Glovertown, Alexander Bay.
Walter, a man with the excellent quality of keen sight,

i 2

116 HUNTING CAMPS.

had several times filled the position of " second guide '
to hunting parties, and although he had never gone on
a protracted expedition into the interior, was neverthe-
less well used to camp life and proficient in finding his
way, packing, and other tasks which make a capable
woodsman. The brother, Sam, was some years younger,
in fact little more than a youth.

On the 1st of October Captain Wynyard and I left
England on the Allan liner Carthaginian, and after a
fair passage arrived in St. John's, where we hurried
through the necessary preparations, and in the early
morning of the 14th the Newfoundland express put us
down at Terra Nova, where our men were waiting for
us. At this place I found, also, an old schoolfellow,
Mr. I. H. Simon, in camp, he having, on my recom-
mendation, employed Jack and Frank Wells for the
earlier or September season. Simon, though he had
seen very few deer, not more, if I remember rightly,
than five shootable stags, had nevertheless killed three
good heads, the best being a very heavy one.

He gave us the news that a party of American
hunters encamped close by were going to hunt what is
known as the " middle country," a district lying to the
east and south of Island Pond. The leader of this party
had just returned from Nova Scotia, where he had been
after moose. On hearing that these gentlemen intended
to hunt the " middle country " we were well content, as
although we purposed ultimately to cross towards
Middle Ridge, yet the ground between us and that
tract had been so full of caribou in the previous
November that I should have been sorry to share it
with any other hunters.

The next day we put all our outfit aboard two flats

Terra Xova Falls.

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 117

and the canoe, and started up the lake under a down-
pour of heavy rain. Very soon the wind rose to such
strength as to render the crossing of Terra Nova Lake
in our deeply-laden craft a matter of question. At last
we decided to camp and spend the remainder of the day
in going through the list of our provisions and arranging
them in suitable packs.

On the 16th, the wind having fallen, we proceeded
upon our way and slept that night at my old camping
place at Butt's Brook. When I last saw it, the year
before, this spot had been very beautiful, but I now
found to my disgust that a forest fire had devastated the
woods, while the underbrush had been reduced to black
sticks, which made it impossible to walk in any direc-
tion with pleasure, the more especially as the charcoal
stained one black from head to foot. The limit of this
fire was not reached until we came to Beaver Pond on
the high country.

From Butt's Brook to Millais Lake it was necessary to
portage both canoes, for we had brought a second
collapsible canvas canoe with us. All over this country
where previously I had had such magnificent sport we
failed to see a single deer, until, on October 20th, as
Wynyard and I were crossing a barren to look at the
skeleton of my largest stag of the former season, a band
of seven does, escorted by one small stag, came into
view round a drogue. At once they got our wind and
dashed away. About four o'clock we reached Simon's
furthest camp, and, leaving the men to prepare for the
night, Wynyard and I walked out, thinking it might be
worth while to look at the carcases of the deer Simon
had killed, in case any of them might have received a
visit from a bear, for some few of these animals are to be

118 HUNTING CAMPS.

found among the berry-covered barrens. After visiting
the carcases without success, we were returning to camp
in the late dusk, when I caught sight of a stag approach-
ing. We lay down, and the stag climbed a knoll
within eighty yards of us, where, outlined against the
sky, he showed splendidly — better, indeed, than he
deserved, for he carried but a slight head of less than
twenty points. We were uncommonly glad to see him,
as, according to reports, he certainly had not been there
when Simon had been hunting, so that his presence
augured that the migration had begun and that we might
expect the main body of stags at no distant date. The
next day, the 21st of October, was the opening day of the
second season, and Wynyard and I, accompanied by
Jack Wells, were off early. The weather was beautiful,
and even rather warm. Before long we reached the
series of high barrens above Millais Lake, and here we
were destined to witness a really fine spectacle.

We were lying behind some spruces watching three
stags, one with well-developed bays, that we had stalked,
when an old stag, with a band of does following him,
came up out of the Island Pond woods. Immediately
they appeared in view the stag with the large bays
galloped out across the marsh, challenging the new-
comer. The master stag of the harem was nothing
loth to try conclusions, and advanced at once to the
combat. Both animals uttered a kind of coughing
grunt as they closed, and were soon hard at it, clashing
their antlers together, measuring their strength as they
twisted and strained in the struggle to push each other
backwards. The battle lasted some minutes, the stags
engaging and disengaging more than once, as they were
very equally matched. It was really a magnificent

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 119

sight, and we were able to enjoy it at no greater distance
than one hundred and fifty yards. The does seemed to
take a very lukewarm interest in the fight ; some of
them went on feeding with indifference, and two or
three strayed off towards the other two stags, who
maintained a pointedly detached position afar. Wyn-
yard and I wanted to bet on the result of the battle.
but as both of us fancied the chances of the same stag
the idea fell through.

The old stag, on whose antlers I thought I could
make out twenty-one points, was a very heavy animal,
exceedingly light in colour, while his opponent was
markedly darker and certainly possessed the finer head.
At length, after a protracted period of straining, for in
the contest, which resembled a wrestle rather than a
fight, there were no rushes, but rather a careful locking
of the antlers, followed by a strenuous shoving match,
the old stag seemed to get his horns against the fore-
head of his rival and began to bear him back. Then
suddenly the battle was over, Big Bays gave way,
leaped clear, the old stag made one violent pass at his
enemy's flank and missed, and then Big Bays was in
full retreat. The old stag stood for a moment rejoicing
in his victory, then, possibly feeling that order must be
restored, he rounded up his harem and passed away
across the hilltop. The whole incident was one we
were delighted to have seen. Both of us were struck
by the lack of agility displayed by the stags, the battle
being, as I have said, purely a shoving match.

Each time the stags engaged, however, the antlers
clashed together, producing a loud sound. It seemed
as though the massive caribou heads are difficult weapons
to manipulate, and I can very well understand that a

120 HUNTING CAMPS.

head with large and beautifully palmated antlers may be
inferior as a weapon to a lighter and more easily wielded
growth.

I cannot think there is much danger to either com-
batant, except at the moment of defeat, when the
victor makes his rush at his opponent's flank. Indeed,
it is probable that nearly all the encounters which end
fatally do so because of the locking of the antlers,
when, unable to free themselves and consequently
unable to feed, the unfortunate combatants starve
to death. It is by no means an uncommon thing to
find dropped horns interlocked in this way. But, on
the other hand, all horns sold interlocked need not
necessarily have been so locked in fight, for with a little
force and the help of the fire and manipulation it is
said to be possible to lock two pairs of antlers artificially,
and I believe cases of this kind are not unknown. A
good quartette of locked antlers are readily sold for as
much as $50.

After the battle was over we went on our way and
hunted down towards the lake, and while we were
watching the large marsh near the lake head two stags
began to cross it in our direction, but neither was
worth shooting, and although all day long we continued
to see both does and stags in some numbers, none of the
latter pleased us, and we ultimately got back to camp
with clean rifles.

In the course of ten hours we had seen no less than
eighteen stags, and were naturally in good spirits ; nor
had we any doubt but that the next few days would
bring each of us, as Wells said, "alongside" the big
stag we desired.

On the following day Jack and I went a long

r NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 121

distance to the north. During the forenoon we heard
several shots and were quite sure that Wynyard had
been lucky in his hunting, when all our hopes were
destroyed by finding the newly-severed head of a stag
and the place where the body had been butchered. The
head was a small one, carrying only fourteen points,
and its presence could only be explained in one way —
that a party of meat-hunters were abroad, and to judge
from their tracks there were more than a few of them.
Later we came upon the remains of a doe, which, like
the stag, had been killed on the previous day. As we
were certain that no party of hunters had come in by
way of Terra Nova, we were rather at a loss to account
for the presence of these people, and were inclined to
believe they must belong to a camp of surveyors. But
we were utterly wrong in this surmise, as Wynyard met
three of the party that day and found that they were
settlers from Gambo, thirteen strong as to numbers,
and that they had for the last nine years come to the
Millais Lake country to shoot their winter's meat. Of
course their presence was as unwelcome to us as it was
unexpected, and but for the fact that they were already
preparing to leave we should have been forced to move
away, which would not have suited our plans, as we had
not yet been able to bring up all our outfit and supplies.
However, there was the long stretch of country
towards John's Pond and on the south side of the
lake, that they had not visited, and that would afford
us excellent hunting until the men brought up the
canoes which would enable us to push forward across
the lake.

In consequence of this meeting with the settlers we
could not help being reminded of the somewhat appalling

122 HUNTING CAMPS.

fact that the thirteen men from Gambo possessed the
legal right to kill sixty-five deer. In connection with
this we recalled the bands of Norwegian hunters, who
are each allowed to kill three reindeer, and who club
their rights and used to pursue the few surviving herds
of the Dovrefjeld with Krag-Jorgensen repeating rifles,
opening fire at immense ranges and firing volley after
volley when the deer ran together, and continuing to
shoot until the herd had fled out of sight. This state of
affairs has, however, recently been rectified in Norway
by the passing of a law which forbids the use of a
repeating rifle against reindeer, and further regulates
the bore of the single-cartridge weapon which is
permitted. The second part of this law rules out the
Krag-Jorgensen and other small-bore rifles.

Of course I do not for a moment suggest that the
Gambo party would, even if they could, have pressed to
its limit their privilege of shooting sixty-five caribou
among them ; the consideration alone of being so far
from the railroad would have prevented this, as it
would have been impossible to handle such an amount
of meat without some means of transit other than
men's backs. But, seeing the harm that may quite
legally be done by such large parties, I think a law
prohibiting the hunting of caribou by a company of
greater strength than six members may some day be
worth the consideration of those in power in our oldest
colony.

Late that same afternoon, as we were bound for
camp by way of the head of Island Pond, we saw a
good-sized stag, which we did not disturb, and not long
afterwards we heard some deer moving in the water.
Creeping down, we soon came in sight of two does, one

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 123

with a maimed shoulder, and a stag. The stag, though
partially hidden by the trees, seemed to show a fine
head, and we spent the better part of half an hour
trying to get a good view of him. The stalking of that
stag has, for some reason, always stood out prominently
among my memories of Newfoundland. The does, and
more especially the maimed doe. were extremely watch-
ful, so much so that we had a good deal of trouble to get
within two hundred yards. At that range I took a careful
look at the stag with my telescope, and made out that
he carried good tops and bays and one very large brow.
I was, however, particularly keen just then to kill a
stag with two equally-developed brow antlers. At the
distance it was impossible to see whether the big fellow
carried one or two, so I decided to try for a nearer
view. Since he had left the shelter of the junipers
where I first saw him he had been standing quite still,
but no sooner had I crawled well out into the open
than he began to feed, moving as he did so. In this
way I must have stalked him for quite two hundred
yards, until I noticed that he was appreciably increasing
the distance between us. The does, who had also
become invisible for a time, now fed out on to the
ground which separated me from the stag. At length
I gained the cover of a dwarfed spruce and, after lying
there for some minutes, was relieved to find that the
does were moving away at right angles ; the stag did
not seem to notice their departure, but remained at the
edge of the lake. Taking advantage of this, I crept
along some rocks directly above him and finally got
within sixty yards, where, from behind a big boulder, I
was able to count his points through the glass with some
accuracy. He carried four points on each top, six and

124 HUNTING CAMPS.

four on the bays, two at the back of the beam, and on
one brow I imagined that I could make out ten and on
the other four points. Besides these there was one very
clearly defined extra point above the right brow.

Now it is undoubtedly a very fine head on which
one can count thirty-five points at sixty yards, but, as
I have said, I was eager to secure a pair of even brows,
and no doubt my good fortune during the previous year
had given me an exaggerated idea of the trophies I
might expect to obtain. So, in spite of the urging of
Jack Wells, who had joined me, I put off shooting.
Meantime the sun went down behind us and the moon
rose. It was a perfectly still night, not a ripple stirred
the silver water of the pond on which the little wooded
islands showed like blots. We must have remained for
a very long time behind our boulder watching that
grand stag. Presently Jack besought me with many
signs to shoot and was much upset by my refusal, and
ultimately we crept quietly away, and, as we rose to
our feet in the moonlight, on the barren above I could
hear the stag walking through the water. "Why
didn't you give a gun to he ? " Jack asked in accents
of deep reproach. I excused myself on the score that
he was not as good a stag as those we had shot during
my former season in Newfoundland. Jack pointed
over the barren. " You remember that thirty-five
pointer you let go up there last year ? There was a
better head on he than on two you shot after." I had
to admit that was so. " Like as not, that stag you
let go is the best we'll see this trip ! "

With which cheerful prophecy we went on our way
to camp, where I found Wynyard, who had seen little
save the men from Gambo.

A Beaver-dam near the Gander River. Central Newfoundland.

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 125

The following day, being Sunday, was to be a day of
rest, but when I woke in the morning, rather late, I
found that the younger Dewey had set out before dawn
for Beaver Pond, where we had cached the collapsible
canvas canoe on our journey down. It rained all the
day with a depressing persistence, and towards the after-
noon a dense mist obscured the country. The rising of
this mist caused Walter Dewey some anxiety, as his
brother had had practically no experience of the woods,
and had only been over the route through which his
way lay when he travelled up with us ten days before.
When the day closed and darkness came on we all
began to share Walter's fears, for it certainly is easy to
lose one's way in thick weather, and once lost an
individual's life often depends upon his temperament.

Perhaps foremost among the subjects which are
discussed with perennial interest by those who live close
to nature is the position of the man who loses himself in
an uninhabited tract of country. To be so lost is an
experience which most people who have spent any
considerable portion of their lives in forests or in
wildernesses have at one time or another undergone.
The moment at which a man first realises that he is
lost is, unluckily, in some cases a moment of panic. In
blind haste the unfortunate individual rushes off,
generally in the wrong direction, and, driven by his
nameless terror, travels over long distances, exhausting
himself uselessly. Nine out of ten tragedies of the
woods have been the direct result of giving way to this
almost uncontrollable impulse ; in many a case some
inexperienced hunter or prospector, even though carry-
ing a rifle and the other small impedimenta without
which no one should ever leave the main camp, has

126 HUNTING CAMPS.

hurried on and on, deeper and deeper into the bush,
using up his strength and finally dying of starvation,
when the knowledge of a simple rule or two would have
saved his life. Of course, as all with experience know,
the one and only thing to do is to light a fire on the
spot and to sit down and keep warm beside it until
daylight, when a man's comrades, who have missed him
and are on the look-out, can see the smoke and walk
him up. It will be understood that to an excitable
nature the moment of panic is hard to conquer and a
masterly inactivity is difficult.

Even an expert woodsman may be lost, for instance,
under conditions of thick weather, whether of mist or
falling snow, but such a one will know how to retrieve
his mistake in one way or another. Perhaps I may be
pardoned for repeating the old story of the Indian and
his white employer who were lost. After wandering
for a long time and failing to find the camp they had
left in the morning, the Indian threw down his grub-
bag and gave up the search. " Indian lost," taunted
the white man. " Oh, no," replied the Indian ; " Indian
not lost, camp lost." The inference is plain.

As I have said, the subject of being lost is one often
talked of round a camp fire, because the contingency is
never too remote. A company of woodsmen and
trappers, when discussing the essentials of life in such a
case, chose them in the following order : —

1. A rifle and cartridges.

2. Matches.

3. An axe.

After that, opinions were divided between a cooking-
pot, tea, salt, tobacco, and a blanket, but these latter
articles were generally acknowledged to be luxuries,

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 127

not necessaries. It is easy to imagine the case of an
expert in the northern forests who is either lost or is
unable to reach camp on a snowy night. From pushing
his way through the thick-growing trees, he is wet to
the skin, and darkness is upon him. The moment he
determines to make no further effort he begins to look
for a spot in which to pass the night. The wind is
blowing bitterly cold ; he therefore chooses a solid clump
of trees which will break its force, and in the shelter of
which only a few of the snowflakes will reach him.
Then he does not at once light a fire, but collects
sufficient wood, dead logs and fallen branches, to last
till daylight comes again ; for the old hand knows
better than to have to turn out from his snug lair at three
o'clock in the morning, may be, to bring in fresh fuel.
He strips the bark from a birch, putting some of the
dry inner layers into his pocket to start his fire, and he
gathers a large quantity of boughs, of balsam if he can
get them, to make his bed and shelter. Having trans-
ferred these to the chosen spot, he clears away the snow
from it and then piles up some tree-trunks to the wind-
ward, and afterwards makes a second rampart of logs
opposite to the first, against which to build his fire.
However bleak the night, a fire, carefully fed, is quickly
blazing, through the flame and smoke of which he passes
his balsam boughs to dry them for his bedding. Branches
skilfully laid make a mattress as springy and comfortable
as any one could desire. The last thing is to spread the
fire into a long blaze, longer than himself, so that
he may feel its heat through the whole length of his
body and limbs. Wood to replenish it is placed within
easy reach, and after eating food, if he is lucky enough
to have any with him, he can lie down opposite his

128 HUNTING CAMPS.

seven-foot fire to enjoy a night of warm sleep even if
the thermometer marks degrees below zero.

To light a fire with a cartridge, in the absence of
matches, the bullet must be removed and the shell
filled with some inflammable substance that will hold
in the powder. Fired at close range into a properly
prepared pile of tinder this will usually ignite it,
especially if there be birch bark amongst it. Without
birch bark the difficulties are much increased if the
weather be wet, for the heart of an old log or limb of
hard wood whittled into chips makes but a poor
substitute.

Newfoundland, it is true, is far from being a difficult
country in which to find one's way. On the other
hand, it contains several thousand square miles where a
man may be lost very effectually. In fact, if Sam had
managed to wander off the trail there might be only a
risky chance of finding him again. Yet, but for
Walter's obvious fears, it would not have occurred to
me to be alarmed, but his state of mind was infectious,
so that when dark finally fell I would have given a
good deal to see Sam walk up to the fire. We passed
rather an anxious night, and it was arranged that at
dawn the men should light a large smoke ; but when
the morning light began to show we saw that the whole
face of the country was draped in a mist that was
thicker than ever, and far from improved by a continual
downpour of heavy rain. Through this Jack and
Walter went off to Beaver Drogue in order to see if
the canoe was still where we had cached it. The rest
of us remained in camp and kept up a big fire, while all
through the day the mist and rain persisted without a
break, rendering any attempt to go in search of Sam

Stnny Ground on the North Shore of Terra Nova Lake.

A typical Newfoundland " Drogue."

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 129

useless. It was only to be hoped that Sam had reached
the canoe, otherwise he would be unable to find any-
thing but berries to eat, as he started with only a knife.
Had he carried a rifle there would have been little to
fear. It was a relief when Walter appeared late in the
afternoon with the news that the prudent Sam had
been found, warm and comfortable, fast asleep under
the canoe. I think that on this occasion the fears of
our men made us unduly anxious, but, at the same
time, in an uninhabited country the margin between
safety and danger is always a narrow one, and we gave
orders that for the future Sam was not to go far from
camp without one of the other men.

On the morning of the next day we moved camp,
changing to the eastern shore of the lake, where
Wynyard and I slept while the men went back to bring
up more packs. Just behind the drogue of trees in
which our tent was pitched stretched a large marsh,
where during the previous season I had seen several
stags. Near by grew a tall juniper, from the upper
branches of which a very useful view was obtainable,
for the marsh was a particularly promising place to
watch, because it presented the only open ground for
some distance, and would therefore probably be chosen
as a crossing place by any stags that might be working
round the lake head. But, although we kept a close
watch, the only stag that appeared was a small one.

On the following afternoon Jack Wells and I canoed
over the lake and camped at the Narrows, while Wyn-
yard remained at the base to hunt the southern slopes,
where I had killed my last stag in 1903. It was agreed
that he should join us at the Narrows on the next day.
In the evening a fair stag crossed the lake, swimming

H.C. K

130 HUNTING CAMPS.

from shore to shore, a distance of over two miles. Up
to this time, although we had seen twenty-eight stags,
neither of us had fired a shot, and I was beginning to
think with sincere regret of the fine thirty-five-pointer
of Island Pond. Frequently at this time, when Jack
looked gloomy, if I asked him the cause he would
answer, " That stag of Island Pond had a shocking
head I " " Shocking " and " dreadful " are, curiously
enough, two of the highest terms of praise that a
Newfoundlander can bestow upon a caribou trophy.

We had had more than our share of rain up to this
period, and I was awakened as usual on the following
morning by the hammering of raindrops upon our
lean-to. I had opened my eyes, when I heard some-
thing moving near by on the isthmus of the Narrows,
and, looking out, I saw a fine stag, accompanied by
two does, staring at the camp. After a short interval I
could have shot this stag from my bed as he moved
round to get the wind, but the remembrance of the
stag of Island Pond, which carried a far finer head,
withheld me, and presently one of the does got to
windward and the three instantly disappeared, with a
tremendous splashing of water.

All day the rain held on, blowing up before a strong
south-east wind ; through which Wynyard and Frank
arrived. But the morning of the 28th broke beautifully
blue, and we crossed the lake to its western end. We
now had all about us absolutely virgin country, and
when Wynyard, who had walked round part of the
way by the shore, joined me we spent most of the day
exploring it. We saw but little sign of caribou, as the
woodland was thick, so in the afternoon Jack and I
climbed up through a wide expanse of green timber on

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 131

to the high country, but had to return before we could
examine it. That night we decided to separate, Wyn-
yard taking the southern side of the lake while Jack
and I, with packs, were to travel as far as we could
towards Middle Ridge. This Middle Ridge, which
may be said to form the backbone of the island, is not
so much a single low range of hills as a series of
undulating uplands covered with trees. At that time,
to the best of my belief, no white man had ever set
foot on Middle Ridge, though many had seen it, for it
is visible for a great number of miles, presenting as it
does almost the only recognisable feature in a broad
landscape. We found some difficulty in carrying our
packs through the dense woods that lie between the
lake and height of land, but at length we took advan-
tage of a marsh heading upwards. The rain of the
earlier days had now turned to snow driven by a heavy
wind from the north, and it was after a tiring pack that
we at last put up our camp among an isolated group of
spruces in the middle of a wide marsh. By the time
this was done there still remained a couple of hours of
daylight, which left us time to take a look before night
closed in at the new country, in which we hoped to find
evidences of a large migration, for time was growing
short. November was upon us and the stags would
soon be dropping their horns.

Although we had been covering much of the same
ground where I had, during the year before, seen such
numbers of deer and secured fine trophies, I was now
much less fortunate. I saw no more than a quarter of
the number of caribou, and the heads were dis-
appointing, but this could partially be accounted for
by the fact that the previous winter and spring in

K 2

132 HUNTING CAMPS.

Newfoundland had been exceptionally cold and severe,
and in consequence the antlers did not grow, in most
cases, to their usual dimensions. But even in these
*' lean years," of which 1904 and 1905 are good
examples, there are always a certain proportion of
stags whose horns are so massive that they seem, in
some degree at any rate, to defy the result of adverse
weather. We began by making a circle to get the
wind in our favour, and as we passed out from behind
just such another clump of spruce trees as that in which
our camp was set we saw before us an undulating
upland covered with snow which had drifted among
a dwarf growth of spruce and their kind. Just upon
the hither side of the sky-line a little band of caribou
were lying down. There were seven of them in all,
and two appeared to be mature stags. Up to that
time the necks of stags had always shone out white
against the yellow of the marshes or the claret-coloured
moss and leafage of the barrens, but the animals we
were now looking at appeared of a dirty ivory against
the pure background of snow. It was not until we
had approached within shot that I saw that neither
stag carried antlers of any great size. We were about
to turn aside, intending to leave the animals undis-
turbed, when the tops of the horns of another stag rose
over the sky-line. Soon the stag himself appeared, and
after standing for a moment he began walking down
towards us. Lying as we were in a patch of spruces,
none of which were more than two feet high, we were
nevertheless quite invisible to the stag, so that long
before he was opposite us the telescope had been
levelled upon his horns. They were very long and
thin, rather of the Norwegian reindeer than of the

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 133

caribou type. I was half tempted to shoot, as the head
was more than a fair one, but the uncertainty as to
whether the left horn, which was farthest from us, was
as good as the right made me pause. In time the stag
returned on his course and presently crossed within a
hundred yards. It was now perfectly clear that he was
not more than a five or six year old, so, giving up all
thoughts of a shot, I spent the gloaming within a few
yards of this beautiful creature, finally slipping away
unnoticed and returning to camp full of hopes for the
morrow.

Almost throughout the trip, as 1 have said, we had
been the victims of a kind of weather which, more than
any other, is unfriendly to the stalker. The days had
been nearly without exception darkened by successive
squalls of rain or melting snow, yet each evening it had
blown clear and the nights had been frosty and starlit.
In these circumstances we rejoiced to hear the wind
roaring in the trees and shower after shower of sleet
beating upon our lean-to throughout the entire night,
for we made sure that morning would bring a change
for the better.

This was exactly what happened. The sun rose
unclouded and bright, and, stepping out of camp, we
were at once greeted by a sight of the three stags which
we had seen upon the previous evening. They were
easily recognisable through the telescope, so we wasted
no time in stalking them, but, taking a long cast to the
northward, were soon able to see over a large extent of
country, upon which, however, nothing seemed to be
moving. The early hours of the morning brought no
good fortune, and it must have been nearly midday
when, in the hollow between two rolling hummocks,

134 HUNTING CAMPS.

we came upon a large flat rock. The top of this rock
formed a slight depression filled with shallow soil where
grass and low shrubs were growing. To the north-
west lay a huge marsh, in the centre of which a doe
caribou with a comparatively large pair of horns was
feeding. The sun had come out deliciously warm,
so that Wells and I lay down upon the top of the
rock and gave ourselves up to a desultory consideration
of the big doe's movements. We must have been there
half an hour before Wells suddenly said, " Look at the
big stag. That is a brute." This again is one of the
top notes of Wells' vocabulary of appreciation. I
looked up just in time to see a large stag in the act
of slowly rising from a depression fringed about with a
growth of young spruce, where the nature of the
ground had hidden him completely from our view.
There was no need to take the telescope, as even at
the distance which divided us it was plain that his
horns were broad and heavy. Whether we should
ever have a closer view of him was a question much
more open to doubt, as he was standing in the very
centre of the marsh and the wind was exceedingly
unfavourable. There was but one thing for it, and that
was to approach him from the farther side.

The surface of the country in most parts of New-
foundland, and more particularly among the bogs and
marshes, is peculiarly ill-adapted to running, but as
both deer seemed uneasy we endeavoured to make our
circle at the highest possible speed. Certainly we
covered our two miles round in fair time, and reaching
the other side of the marsh we flung ourselves down for
a moment's rest. On rising I found to my disgust that
the wind had veered, and in order to make our approach

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 135

we were forced to retrace our steps almost to the
point from which we had started. Meantime, however,
the doe had lain down, and the stag was feeding some
two hundred yards behind her. Fortunately the two
were nearly in a line with a long, low bank of moss
which gave us a little shelter. The distance to the deer
was fully half a mile, every inch of which would have
to be covered by crawling. At length we arrived at
the very limit of the little bank of moss and found
ourselves confronted by a large bog-hole that lay
almost flush with the surface of the marsh. As we
paused here the stag approached the doe and prodded
her a couple of times with his horns. She at once rose
and ran about a hundred yards in our direction, when
she slowed to a walk. It was perfectly clear that if she
held upon her course she must soon come upon our
tracks by the flat rock, when she would at once make
off, taking the stag with her. We were therefore
obliged to attempt the open stalk. During its course
the rifle as well as ourselves became covered with black
slime, and I was sorry I had not that morning brought
the case ; but in a country which is broken up by woods
to a very great extent, as in Newfoundland, it is
impossible to carry the rifle in its cover without risking
the loss of an occasional quick shot. So by dint of
tying up the action of the Mannlicher in a pocket-
handkerchief I attempted to prevent any untoward
jamming accident. Luckily I was clad in brown
clothes, which harmonised with the colour of the
marsh, but Wells' dark coat was at times so much in
evidence that I was about to continue the stalk alone,
when the doe obviously made us out and sounded a
warning. The stag ran up beside her and stared in our

136 HUNTING CAMPS.

direction ; then, as caribou sometimes will, he circled
round at a trot in order to get our wind. This brought
him at one point to within about two hundred yards,
on which I threw the foresight upon his chest as he
turned, and fired. He gave a couple of bounds and
went off in a cloud of marsh water. Although I had
heard the first bullet strike, I was about to fire a second
shot, when he fell head over heels into a bog-hole, where
little but his antlers and one hind hoof were showing
above the mud by the time we ran up. It was neces-
sary to make a little bridge of logs to the body before
we were able to touch the trophy, which turned out to
be rather past its prime. Nevertheless the weight of
the head made up for its irregularities, and we were
glad to think that we had at last killed a stag upon
those ridges of which both of us had been thinking for
so many months.

After the day just described the wet weather, alas !
resumed its sway, the winds blew more violently than
ever, and, worst of all, rain once more took the place of
snow, and for the following days and nights we were
never dry. The deer upon the Middle Ridge country
proved to be exceedingly wild, a fact which we at the
time accounted for by concluding that they might
possibly have been harried by wolves. This opinion
was, however, later proved to be erroneous. The true
reason is that Middle Ridge, as well as the burnt lands
to the west of it, form one of the chief hunting-grounds of
the Mic-mac Indians ; indeed, the ridge itself is parcelled
out into individual preserves and rigorously hunted. The
chief of the Mic-macs told me that a number of his
people were camped in the Partridgeberry Hills near the
source of the Gander in the previous September.

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 137

During the autumn months the Mic-macs migrate
to their hunting-grounds, where they trap a good
number of beaver and lynx. They are a cheerful and
improvident race. Why is it that the enchanting
quality of cheerfulness is often linked with this corre-
lative ? With their old muzzle-loading rifles, an axe, a
blanket, a box of matches, and a packet of tea, they
habitually make long journeys, often crossing the island
from the south coast to the railway. Although popu-
larly supposed by the settlers to "kill all they can
come up with," it is quite probable that they are far
more economical of animal life than their white brethren.
Among them some interesting customs still obtain.
For instance, I have heard it said that no Indian hunter
will ever kill a caribou stag without first whispering a
short speech or prayer addressed to it, in which he
regrets the hard necessity that compels him to fire the
death-shot, and adds his good wishes for the welfare of
the caribou in that land to which it is about to travel.
This at least, if true, does not suggest the spirit of the
reckless slaughterer.

After spending some fruitless days hunting the high
ground we turned east and south, seeing stags almost
every day and always stalking or attempting to stalk
those we saw. None of them, however, carried a head
to compare with the one I had already secured ; so that
night after night we tramped back to camp, tired and
disappointed, until ultimately I gave up in despair
and recrossed the lake.

I found Wynyard had shot an old stag whose horns,
although heavy, had " gone back," for the animal
must have been well past his prime. But on the 7th of
November Wynyard's luck came at last, and after an

138 HUNTING CAMPS.

admirable stalk he killed two good stags, the better of
the two having finer tops than I have seen on a live
deer in Newfoundland. His success put us all in great
spirits that night, in spite of the unending rain which
continued to fall, as it had done for so many days, with
something of the volume of a thunderstorm, till it
seemed useless to hope for fine weather. For all that,
on the 8th the morning broke clear, and Jack, Sam, and
I started out early with three packs, intending to put in
the last three days' hunting from Selous' old camp on
John's Pond ; but though we set out in good time we
were not fated to arrive there, as some two hours later,
as we were carrying our outfit over the barrens, we came
to a high, bald knoll, from the top of which we spied
three does passing through a wood a mile away. As it
seemed likely they would be accompanied by a stag,
we put down our packs, and, leaving them with Sam,
Jack and I started in pursuit. When we sighted them
the does were moving at a fast walk, so we made a
long circuit behind a ridge in order to head them off.
As soon as we turned up wind and ascended the ridge
we saw the white stern of one of them in a thick wood,
and presently I thought I caught a glimpse of the top
of an antler, but could not make quite sure. All
the animals were moving, and as it was impossible
to see more than ten yards in the thick growth we
set off as rapidly and silently as might be to a spot
ahead of the deer, where the wood seemed to be less
dense.

Owing to the nature of the country and the continual
necessity of fording streams and crossing flooded
marshes, we were both hunting in sealskin boots, which
are made by the Eskimo of the Labrador Peninsula.

as we v.
to a

CAMPS.

u;ood stags, the better of

m I have seen on a live

put us all in great

? of the unending rain which

I done for so many days, with

rstorm, till it

For all that,

clear, and Jack, Sam, and

packs, intending to put in

Selous' old camp on

out in good tim<

i ie two hours later,

thi

den

of the top

sure. All

it was impossible

i lie thick growth we

y as might be to a spot

the wood seemed to be

of the country and the continual

is and -if* flooded

Iskin b< iich

Labrador Peninsula.

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 139

The soles of these boots consist of a single layer of skin
and are as noiseless as moccasins, but the legs, which
tie below the knee, being very fiill and baggy, act like a
drum upon which the lower stems and leaves play a
tattoo as one passes through them. I had, by ill-
fortune, put on a new pair of these boots that very
morning, as my old ones had been placed too near the
fire and in consequence burnt. Now as we moved
along the edge of a wood the hard new legs set up a
disastrous tapping with the touch of every twig. We
had to delay while I pulled the tops of my stockings
down over the boots ; this done, we were able to resume
our stalk in adequate silence.

As we were hurrying along, a portion of a stag's antlers
suddenly showed in a gap among the spruces. He had
heard something and was evidently suspicious, as the
antlers remained perfectly still, and by their angle the
animal had raised his head to listen. From my position
it was only possible to see that the left horn carried five
points on the top. I was wondering what the rest of
the horn was like, when the stag took a step forward
preparatory to flight. This movement disclosed more
of the horn, and as the view was highly satisfactory 1
fired at once. The Mannlicher bullet broke his neck.
The stag, which had the smallest body of any I
ever shot, proved to possess a most symmetrical and
beautiful head of thirty-five points, the brow antlers
being perfectly equal and fulfilling exactly the descrip-
tion of " hands clasped in prayer." It is singular how
few caribou grow the brows evenly. There is no single
specimen in the British Museum from Siberia, Canada,
or Norway which displays this distinctive beauty.
Nearly all Newfoundland stags carry two brow antlers,

140 HUNTING CAMPS.

but one is almost invariably inferior to the other, that
on the left being usually the finer.

I sent off Jack to bring up Sam and the packs, and
on their return we camped in a drogue of birches not
very far from the body of the caribou. While we were
setting up our lean-to the rain began again to fall
heavily, but as we had been walking up-wind we were
able to light a fire without spoiling any more ground
for hunting. It is astonishing how quickly one can
light a good fire in Newfoundland, for quantities of
inflammable birch bark are to be found everywhere.
In a few minutes we had boiled a kettle of tea and
were as comfortable as our soaking garments would
allow us to be. The tea was hardly drunk before the
wind shifted several points to the west, and, guessing
that this change would have its effect upon the weather,
Jack and I started at once again, leaving Sam Dewey
to his duties in camp.

By the time we had crossed a little river and come
out upon a wide marsh we could hear Dewey's axe-
strokes from among the birches, and as we walked over
a rise we found to our disgust that two stags, which
must have been lying down upon the marsh, had heard
them also, for we saw the pair trotting away over a
ridge, and soon afterwards we came upon their fresh
tracks. We only saw them as they passed over the
sky-line, therefore we neither of us got more than a
momentary glimpse of the stags, which, however, was
enough to tell us that one was a very fine animal.
His track also was large. A caribou differs from either
elk or moose in that, when once he is frightened, it is
almost hopeless to expect to see him afterwards. A
moose will often travel ten miles, yet, if you are

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 141

determined to do so, you can generally come to terms
with him again. But a caribou in a similar case will
altogether abandon the part of the country in which he
has been jumped. Thus we were aware that if the two
animals ahead had winded us or our tracks to follow
them would have been worse than useless. But as
matters stood I did not believe that they had been
much frightened ; consequently, as one of them appeared
to be a particularly big fellow, we pushed on upon their
trail not without hopes.

For the first couple of miles the big slots were very
plain, but after this the nature of the ground changed
and hard, bald barrens took the place of the marshes.
From each of these we spied the country ahead, but for
two hours we saw nothing of the caribou, and I was
thinking of giving them up, as we could not tell in
which direction they had gone, when we suddenly
perceived them sparring together upon a sloping barren
about a mile distant. I took out the telescope, only to
find that the damp had clouded the lenses and that
without a thorough cleaning it was practically useless.
Fortunately, however, the stags were in full view, the
wind was absolutely in our favour, and the country
broken up by boulders, which afforded good cover. In
these circumstances we were able to go forward at a
good pace, but, to our vexation, long before we came
within range we saw the smaller of the two stags
walk away over the hill, followed immediately by his
companion.

We lost little time in reaching the hummock over
which they had vanished, and, crawling cautiously round
the base of it, we found ourselves quite close to the
smaller stag, which stood with its head up looking out

142 HUNTING CAMPS.

over the country like a sentinel. For a moment we
failed to sight the big stag, but soon we perceived him
feeding just over the top of the next rise. Half of the
great yellow body was visible, but his head was down,
and in that position two or three steps took him com-
pletely out of view. We were expecting No. 2 to
follow him, when, to my mortification, he quietly lay
down. To go further was impossible without alarming
him, so we also lay down and passed the time in
cleaning the telescope. When it was ready we had a
good look at the sentinel stag, and I was delighted to
find that he carried a very tolerable pair of horns and
was in all ways a mature stag. Beside his comrade he
had looked " nothing at all," as Wells put it.

My only fear now was that the giant would travel
away while we were forced to wait ; still the chances
were in favour of the stags remaining together, and as
the one that was close to us showed no sign of uneasi-
ness I concluded that the other had lain down on the
further side of the ridge at no great distance. We
remained where we were as patiently as we could for the
better part of two hours before the inconvenient smaller
caribou at last rose and, stretching himself like a dog,
walked off at right angles in an aimless kind of way.
By this time our coats, which had been very wet, were
frozen quite hard, so that they crackled with our first
movements. Before very long we were peering over
the ridge where the big yellow stag had disappeared.
My supposition had been correct, for I soon made him
out lying down about two hundred yards away on the
opposite slope directly in front of us. A glance at the
horn nearest to us was enough to settle all doubts ; a more
massive antler no hunter could desire. Then with the

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 143

telescope I tried to discover its fellow, but in vain, for
the stag carried only one antler. Without a word I
handed the glass to Wells. " That's the stag we saw
last year, don't you think so ? " he said at once. In fact
there was no room for a doubt, for, besides its extra-
ordinary weight, the horn was of a peculiar shape — a
long, sharp spike protruded some eighteen inches from
the beam between the brow and the bay.

It seemed probable that this stag had never possessed
two antlers. On the other hand, it was just possible
that he had in two consecutive years knocked off the
second horn fighting or in running through the woods
when it was in velvet. We could talk with perfect
safety in the wind that was whistling off the frozen
barrens. The ground between us and the stag was
ideal for stalking — covered with boulders and hummocks
of moss. The spot was obviously a favourite feeding
place of caribou, for the cream-coloured reindeer moss
was cropped as close as if it had been cut with a lawn-
mower. By using a little care we were able to get
within sixty yards of the big stag, and we waited
watching him. Presently he faced us, and neither with
the naked eye nor with the telescope could I make out
any sign of the missing horn. Unquestionably he was
one-horned.

After a while he got on his feet and began feeding
straight towards us, until at last I could see the colour
of his eyes and even, as I fancied, the ruminative
expression in them. At length he stopped feeding and
raised his head. We were directly below him and only
some fifteen or twenty paces away. He must, I imagine,
have seen his companion upon some neighbouring barren.
This was the moment to shoot, for in another he would

144 HUNTING CAMPS.

pass over the brow of the rise, but instead, finally
making up my mind not to shoot, I took up a small
pebble and tossed it at him. It did not hit him, but in
that second he became another creature. His head went
up into the inimitable stately pose of a startled deer.
He stood thus for a moment, then the great one-horned
stag galloped ponderously over the hill.

In the following year he had a third escape, for
it happened that the veteran Bob Saunders was
guiding a sportsman over the same country when they
fell in with and stalked an enormous one-horned stag.
Saunders wanted his sportsman to shoot it, as he
suggested that it had only recently dropped the second
horn and, by following the animal's tracks backwards,
they might find it. The sportsman, however, did not
see the matter in the same light, and so the one-horned
stag was once again spared. From Saunders' description
of its single antler I have little doubt that it was the
same animal which I saw in 1903 and 1904.

This incident is interesting from one point of view, as
it goes some way towards proving that the caribou
migrates in more or less the same direction every year
and returns again and again to the same autumn
haunts. A further proof is afforded by the fact that
the track of an immense caribou has been seen inter-
mittently for several seasons near, I believe, Lake
Mollygojack, or at any rate in that district of the island.
These tracks are so remarkable that they have been
photographed.

The size of a track does not, however, bear any
relation to the size of the antlers of the stag that makes
it, a fact brought prominently and disagreeably to my
notice on the next day when, early in the morning, we

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 145

struck the tracks of a band of some eight or ten caribou,
amongst them a stag which gave us a splendid day.
We found the trail quite fresh in the snow, and in due
time saw the stag himself lying down among some
boulders. A number of does kept such good watch,
however, that it was late in the afternoon before I got
within range, when I shot the stag through the neck.
The head was a very disappointing one of twenty-five
points, although the animal himself was perhaps the
heaviest I have ever seen.

The weather was now turning bitterly cold, but at
last the wearisome rain had ceased and been succeeded
by a hard frost which continued day and night. On
the morning of the 10th I fired a long shot at a stag as
he galloped along a ridge, and missed him just as he
disappeared into a belt of pine. Running round this, I
was in time to see him emerge not more than fifty
yards away, but then I saw that his head was much
lighter than I had thought, so I did not kill him, which
I could easily have done. During the remainder of
the day we saw two or three stags that had dropped
their horns, and it was very obvious that the season
was practically at an end, and I therefore decided to
rejoin Wynyard after one more day's hunting.

As that was to be our last day except on the east-
ward trail we started at daylight. It had been snowing
in the night and from time to time there were other
slight falls, driven up by a bitter wind. It was already
past eleven o'clock when, in a valley at the southern
end of Island Pond, we spied three stags and several
does. I do not know if these deer had been_fired upon
by the Gambo shooters, for, although they did not
move much, they kept an exceedingly good look-out,

H.C. L

146 HUNTING CAMPS.

and, though presently the two biggest stags lay down,
they chose a quite inaccessible position in the centre of
a marsh, from which they did not rise till past three
o'clock. Had it not been so cold I should have enjoyed
the long wait, as the deer were throughout in full view,
one of the stags assuming a position I have never seen
a caribou take before or since. He lay down on his
side, with one horn resting on the snow and the other
sticking up to the sky. Finally, when they moved off
over the hill, we were glad to take a little exercise to
restore our circulations under cover of the ridge before
following their tracks in the snow. As these led into a
belt of trees we soon came up within sixty yards, and
one of the big stags — I could not tell which of them, as
his head was down — was feeding on the far side of the
herd almost opposite to me, and I was just about to
fire when Jack whispered, " That is not the big fellow."
At the same moment a doe saw us, and the next the
whole band were in a wild stampede, led by the stag at
which I had been aiming and which I now recognised
as the one that had lain down in so curious a petition.
I fired at him and heard the bullet tell, and theA, as T
was trying to eject the cartridge, the other big stag
broke cover almost in front of me. He was so close
that, had he not swerved, he might have knocked me
over. Meantime I was still struggling with the refrac-
tory cartridge, and when at last I succeeded in getting
it out and another in the stag was going away end-on
at about fifty yards, when I fired at the back of his
neck and missed. After galloping another hundred arid
fifty yards he stood and gave me a chance of a beautiful
broadside shot, which passed over his back, and he went
off unhurt.

Packing through Newfoundland.

The End of the Trip.

NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 147

I was naturally chagrined and furious with myself
for missing such an easy opportunity and still more for
my idiotic performance in allowing myself to change
from one stag to the other at the last moment, even
though I had not seen the second stag until he broke
out almost on top of me, for a bush had screened him
entirely. Yet all the time, Wells told me, this animal
had really been nearer to me than any of the others.
We followed him in rather an unhopeful frame of mind
for about half an hour and then returned to look for
the first I had fired at. We found him lying by the
edge of a little pond. His head was a very fairly good
one, though, I think, a little inferior to that of his
companion.

Early next day I climbed a hill to look for the smoke
of Wynyard's camp fire, as I imagined it more than
likely that by this time he would have moved from the
spot at which I had parted from him. This turned out
to be the case, for I quickly perceived the smoke rising
some ten miles away to the north-east. As far as I
could judge he was camped in the woods by Foxy
Lead. I determined to rejoin him, hunting on my
wray, as by striking to the south-east I could still pass
through some country that we had not visited. Late
in the afternoon, just as we were on the point of turning
back, Jack Wells spied a large stag that was feeding,
escorted by fifteen does. Still sore from my experience
of the previous day, I stalked him carefully to within
a distance of something under a hundred yards, when
I shot him through the lungs. Afterwards we took his
head and that of the stag I had killed on the previous day
into Wynyard's camp, where I was delighted to find that
my friend had added another nice head to his bag.

i. 2

148 HUNTING CAMPS.

We cached the canoes on the following day and were
able to travel very light, and consequently made the
longest journey I have ever done at a stretch in New-
foundland. Starting before dawn with our packs we
reached our base camp at Butt's Brook the same
evening and, pushing on at once in the flats, arrived at
Terra Nova station by eleven o'clock at night. On the
way out, just before we reached Sir William Whiteway's
Drogue, we came upon the fairly fresh tracks of a bear.

On the whole the 1904 trip was disappointing both
as regards the number of deer seen and as regards the
size of the antlers, for whereas in 1903 I alone saw a
hundred and twenty-one absolutely shootable stags, in
1904 Wynyard and I only saw seventy between us, and
of these a large proportion carried very poorly-grown
horns. As to the number of the deer, it is certain that
we failed to strike the main migration, which did not
pass through the Terra Nova country in 1904. The
caribou are admittedly arbitrary in their movements
and change their course every year ; the diminished horn
growth might be attributable, as I have said before, to
the severity of the spring of that year, the prolongation
of the cold seeming to hold back the normal production
of the antlers of the caribou in Newfoundland. I
believe that in that year, 1904, no head of over thirty-
five points was brought in to St. John's.

Apart from this universal poverty of horn growth,
the wetness of the season added no small item to our
disappointment, for we missed the usual lovely October
weather, to which I had not only looked forward myself,
but had led Wynyard to look forward also. For all
that 1 believe we both enjoyed our four weeks on the
barrens.

CHAPTER VI.

AN ELK-HUNTING SEASON IN NORWAY.

[Note. — The chapter following is included in this
book as the author thinks it may interest his readers
to compare the methods adopted in Norway in hunting
the elk (A Ices machlis) with those in vogue in America
for hunting the moose (Aices americanus), the New
World form of the same animal.]

IN 1905 I decided to try a season in Norway, and in
pursuance of this plan I rented eighteen elk-rights in
the province of Namdalen. Most of the elk forests
in this district form part of the area of various farms,
and consequently the rights belong to the farmers, and
upon each " right " an elk, either bull or cow, may be
killed.

The Norwegian farmers live a free, if hard, life, but
they derive in many cases their chief means of comfort
from the leasing of their sporting rights. The cost of
a licence to shoot elk is 100 kroners, a little more than
£5, and the elk-rights cost from £5 to £15 apiece,
according to the chances of success which they offer.
A certain number of rights are to be hired in London,
but as a rule better value is to be obtained by dealing
direct with the farmers or owners. It has of late been
the wise policy of the Norwegian Storthing to cut
down the length of the shooting season ; from two
months it has already shrunk to twenty-one days, so

150 HUNTING CAMPS.

brief a period as to force strong temptation upon the
hunter to hunt " not wisely, but too well," in the sense
of hunting without rest or allowing himself any
remission of effort. Should these three weeks ever be
curtailed to two, it would, I imagine, be a mistaken
policy, as not many British sportsmen will pay a licence
and a heavy rent for a fortnight's shooting ; indeed,
individually he grumbles a little, and sometimes more
than a little, even now, for it is safe to say that few
tenants of elking-rights kill their limit, at any rate in
northern Norway.

I arrived some three weeks before the elk season,
which opens on the 10th of September, and found my
headquarters on a flat hill-top overlooking a long stretch
of the Namsen River ; there we dwelt in a Noah's Ark
house, scaled to human size, which, with one or two
similar arks, stood round an oblong of unkempt grass.
I put in many pleasant days after ryper and blackgame,
during which, if my bag was very small, I at least had
good opportunity of learning the limits of my ground,
as well as of occasionally taking an elk-hound, but no
rifle, over the hills.

The farms, over six of which I had acquired rights,
were one very like another, containing, save in the
lower valley of the Namsen and a few acres round the
saeters, very little cleared ground, the remainder of
the land being made up of marsh, mountain, and forest.
During the summer the cattle are herded on the hills
which form the elk-grounds, but very shortly before the
elk season the saeters are abandoned and the rights
left to peace and quiet. The sudden appearance of a
Lapp encampment upon one's most promising ground
is always a possibility, and one which entirely destroys

AN ELK SEASON. 151

all hope of sport in its not only close but very wide
vicinity. Of recent years elk havre increased largely
in numbers in Namdalen, although, owing to the ruth-
less way in which the young bulls are shot, good
heads are not common.

On my six farms were four saeters, or huts, from
which the outlying districts could be conveniently
hunted. Before the season opened I visited these
saeters, and was able to gain some knowledge of the
ground. At the last moment I rented an extra right
which the owner, a farmer in a small way, declared to
be excellent, and as he was willing that 1 should walk
over the ground with an elk-dog I did so. This right,
on a farm called Brusvasaasen, adjoined my best Elstad
ground, and among the raspberry canes, which covered
the hillside, there were such evident traces of elk as to
convince me that the farmer was in the right. I there-
fore came to an arrangement with him.

Elk-hunting in Norway, though it demands hard
work and effort, compares unfavourably in my opinion
with moose-hunting in that it must be pursued on
long-occupied ground, and does not give anything like
the same opportunities for wilderness life, but is in fact
carried out under conditions rather similar to those of
an exceedingly rough Scottish shooting, Although 1
took a tent over, I could never succeed in persuading
the Norwegians to use it. They objected on the score
that to camp in a tent would only result in driving
away the elk, who took little notice of the summer
camps in the saeters because they were accustomed to
them, whereas the unfamiliar sight of a tent camp would
alarm them. As I had always, out of England, hunted
in countries where the whole land was free, I felt at first

152 HUNTING CAMPS.

a good deal irked by the boundaries, and indeed during
the whole season never quite attained the sense of
freedom, which is the main charm of a hunter's life.

Apart from this, however, Norwegian shooting does
possess one or two great advantages, the chief of them
being that no part of any animal killed is wasted ; and
although 1 consider it absolutely legitimate to shoot an
animal for his horns, yet it is certainly much more
satisfactory to know that the flesh is valuable as food.
The sportsman's share of any animal he kills is the
head and horns with the hide and about 50 Ibs. of
elk-beef, the remainder of the carcase goes to the
owner of the farm on which the elk is first shot at,
whether actually killed upon it or over the boundary
upon the land of his neighbour. But if a hunter kills
outside of his rented right he must always be able to
prove ownership by the tracks, which in the soft ground
and moss generally leave a clear record.

When I leased my rights in the spring Kristian was
already engaged, but he procured for me another
hunter, Peder Rodseth, who was said to possess an
excellent dog. In hunting elk success depends to an
enormous extent on the hound, and Peder 's Bismarck,
though not to be compared with Kristian's dog of the
same name, could hold his own with most others. One
windy night Peder came to be introduced, and we held
a conversation limited by the fact that he knew about
half a dozen words of English and I as many of
Norwegian. But for all that Peder proved a capital
companion, for whom no day was too long, and his
persistent cheery optimism was a delightful quality
during the long period of ill-success through which we
passed together.

Our Quarters at Xamdalen.

Peder and Bismarck outside the Elstad

AN ELK SEASON. 153

The diverse methods of elk-hunting adopted in
Norway and Sweden have been described by many
writers, and very few words need be said of them here.
In both countries the hound is used, but whereas in
Sweden it is loosed on the trail of the elk, in Norway
the dog is yoked with a breast harness to which a
leader some seven or eight feet long is attached. Held
in leash in this manner the bind-hund, as he is called,
does the work of leading the hunter to his quarry.

The end of August and the opening of September
slipped by, but as the great day, the 10th, approached
a new order of things was ushered in. Tall bearded
men in Lapp boots, and each accompanied by the
inevitable elk-hound, stalked down from lonely dwell-
ings in the hills to the skyds-station where we lived ;
they sat about on the steps of the post office opposite
and discussed the events of local history — a saeter girl
had seen a bull elk of eighteen points, a lynx had killed
two sheep across the river, that the old hound grew
more cunning with the passing years. Once or twice
spasms of political forecast, for wrar seemed imminent,
shook the little group, but always in the end the orbit
of talk settled round the magic word " elg."

On the eve of the 10th Peder reappeared, shy,
dignified, with a neatly-trimmed beard and his hunter's
suit of home-spun supplemented by a new cap with ear-
flaps. His first words after our handshake were " Very
elg Gartland," which I understood to mean that a
number of elk were to be found in the Gartland Woods.
Then, after a prolonged pause, he added, " Big bool
imorgen," plainly a prophecy of good luck in the
morning, made the more clear when, by way of illus-
tration, he placed his hands on either side of his head in

154 HUNTING CAMPS.

turn with eight fingers outstretched, cheerfully indicative
of a sixteen point bull.

I was up early to find a misty morning with a promise
of rain, that continued to threaten all day but did not
fall. The weather to hope for, the weather proper to
elk-hunting, and that most conducive to success, is a
gale of wind with torrential rain beating down through
the tree tops, for the noise of the storm, as well as the
soft condition produced under foot, tends to cover the
hunter's approach from the large keen ears of his quarry.
In those thick forests the walking is almost invariably
bad ; moss, wind-fallen trees, often boulders and slippery
surfaces of rock, and, worse than all, dry branches and
decaying brush make silent progress a matter of extreme
difficulty. My lot during the best part of three weeks
was bright weather with a hot sun, and towards the end
frosty nights with crisp grass and frozen pools.

Though 1 was up before dawn, Peder was waiting for
me with a cariole, as I had decided to start by hunting
the Gartland Forest where the big bull had been seen
by the saeter girl. After putting up the horse at
Gartland Farm we commenced a laborious climb to
reach high ground, for although later in the year elk
were found in the lower pine forests, at the time 1 write
of boys were herding cattle in them, and they were
consequently useless. This long preliminary climb to
reach the elk-grounds, when undertaken daily, makes
a very definite addition to the call upon the physical
energy that is needed for the direct purpose of hunting.
In dull, quiet weather we ascended, but we were met
on the ridges by a strong wind, which whistled through
the spreading thickets of dwarf-birch and ruffled the
surface of the upland waters. Under foot mosses made

AN ELK SEASON 155

a carpet of pile a foot deep and of colours beyond
imagination, reindeer moss threw its lace of yellow and
white over hills and hollows, and the ground was every-
where starred with golden multebaere. It is on such
ground as this that the Norwegian elk passes the hotter
part of summer, until stress of weather drives him to
take shelter lower down among the trees. Yet even in
September, when the sun shines out after a night of
storm or of frost, he is apt to climb away from the
fringes of the forests and to spend the day on the higher
levels lying in some marshy hollow.

On that first day we patrolled the sombre woodlands
and the breezy open, but not a sign of elk did we see,
and the evening closed upon the non-fulfilment of
Peder's forecast. This went on for four days, during
which Bismarck stalked ahead in his leash, for the most
part with listless indifference, only once raising our
hopes by a more alert demeanour, which, however, ended
in nothing more exciting than a glimpse of a spike-bull
already skrcemt upon a distant hillside.

Half the charm of elk-hunting centres on the dog,
without whose aid, except on the very high and open
fjeld where spying with glasses is possible, few
trophies would be obtained, and many farmsteads would
lack their winter supply of salted meat. The ordinary
elk-hound is nearly allied to the husky, though, unlike
his congener, he displays towards human beings a kindly
nature. Between themselves the elk-hounds are very
pugnacious, and when an elk is killed the tracking dog
is generally unwilling to allow any one, save his master,
to approach it. There seem to be two distinct kinds of
elk-hound, one smaller than the other, but it will be as
well to drop generalities in favour of Bismarck, whose

156 HUNTING CAMPS.

companionship gave me an immense amount of pleasure,
and who was responsible for such success as I obtained.
Early in our acquaintance a suspicion arose that the
dog, who, as I was proudly told by Peder, was account-
able for the death of sixteen elk, acted in months other
than September the part of bird hound — that is to say,
he was accustomed to bay beneath trees on which caper-
cailzie or hjerpe were perched, until his master arrived
with a gun and shot them. But for all that he was a
useful dog with a fine nose. One of the interesting
points about Bismarck showed itself gradually as the
season advanced. A marked alteration took place in
his character — day by day he went back more and more
to the mood of savage nature. At the outset an
affectionate animal, with a wagging tail and a keen eye
to the main chance, by the end of the three weeks
he would growl even at his master, and he ended the
season by attacking a farmer upon whose ground
we killed an elk. Undoubtedly the original strain
was strong, and perhaps not so very many genera-
tions have elapsed since the ancestors of Bismarck
chased the elk in wolf-packs as the wolves do to-day
during winter snows, though in the summer time they
withdraw to the higher ground of the mountains
towards Sweden.

It is strange that the wolf, above all his brothers of
the wild, remains the chosen hero of legend and romance
from the nursery tale of Red Riding Hood up to the
present. His very name calls up a vision of the North,
and even those who know the slinking, nor always
mangeless, creature of fact are conscious of the touch of
glamour that hangs about his name.

But though at that season no wolf was likely to be

AN ELK SEASON. 157

visible, there was always a shadowy chance of seeing a
bear. How one longs to have the luck of

"... Boys who unaware,
Ranging the woods to start a hare,
Come to the mouth of the dark lair
Where, growling low, a fierce old bear
Lies amidst bones and blood."

However, the hunter in Norway generally lives on
the belief that on some incredibly lucky day he may
meet with a brown bear and so add to his record, if fate
permitted, the last (if we except the aurochs, the right
of shooting which is vested in the Czar and one or two
of his nobles, and which can therefore scarcely be
included in the general list), the very last, of the
dangerous big game of Europe. In using the term
dangerous big game, I refer to each species taken
collectively, for, although not ordinarily dangerous, the
elk is said to attack on occasions, especially in the
rutting season. Nearly every Norwegian hunter has a
story to tell of an elk that with its powerful fore hoofs
has torn open a man's body. A few of these tales may
be true, but it is certainly also true that a man may
follow elk for fifty seasons without coming upon that
traditional slem elg.

On the 14th of September, late in the afternoon,
we had turned homewards through the forest, having
failed to find sign of elk, when suddenly without
warning four great grey shapes sprang up from among
bushes and bracken upon our left. Peder sent me an
excited whisper, " Bool ! Bool ! " I ran forward and
made out the horns of the bull, and got in a shot as he
plunged through the underbrush a mere glimpse of
black shadow. At the shot the bull turned a complete

158 HUNTING CAMPS.

somersault, clean head over heels like a gigantic rabbit,
and lay still upon the further side of a little patch of
trees. I ran round to get a clearer view, or rather a
view at all, for the elk was now entirely hidden. But no
sooner did I catch sight of him than with a grunt and a
crashing of sticks he pulled himself to his feet and
began to make off through the dense wood.

Meantime my rifle had jammed with some pine-
needles which had clogged the action, but just as the
cartridge was released the bull turned and crossed my
front some hundred and twenty yards away, giving me a
fair chance. Owing to the excitement of the moment, as
well as the fear that the elk would vanish into the thick
timber, I shot too quickly and without making due allow-
ance for the nature of the ground, which fell away at a
sharp angle ; thus, to the best of my belief, the bullet
passed over the elk without touching him. Still I
thought it possible that the elk would not go far, and
we followed his trail and discovered some blood spoor.
Bismarck was beside himself with excitement, straining
at his harness and yelping. After a while we reached
some harder ground and lost five minutes, for Bismarck
took us off on the trail of one of the startled cows.

From this we came back and picked up the bull's
trail again. It led away downhill, then the elk had
turned at a sharp angle, and begun to ascend the
mountain side once more. Meanwhile the rain was
slashing down upon us from the sky and pouring in
streams from the trees. It was clear from the trail that
as he neared the top of the hill the elk had slowed
down, unable to keep up the fierce pace of the start.
So, too, alas ! had we. Running up a Norsk mountain-
side through forest at top speed is a feat beyond even

AN ELK SEASON. 159

the natives of the valley, and very far beyond — in my
case — the power of the alien sportsman. But I
followed as fast as was possible to me. So complete
and so sudden had been the downfall of the elk to the
first shot that I had fancied that he would not travel
very far, so instead of hurrying along in his tracks I
took things quietly and went at my leisure. But ill-
luck was with us, for by some misfortune the hound
slipped his leash, and with an echoing bark at every
spring he bounded away in pursuit. After this there
was no time to be lost, though soon the barking ceased ;
but we hastened forward, and, coming over a second rise,
heard Bismarck again, but from the sound he appeared
to be stationary and was probably baying the elk. By
this time it was raining so hard as to make tracking
very difficult, and shortly when the barking began
again to fade away into the distance, I realised that
my chances of seeing the elk again that day were
slender ; and, indeed, I did not see him either then or
after, though Peder and I searched the woods for him
during the following days. As to the bull, in thinking
it over it seems likely that the first bullet touched his
backbone and creased him, and at the moment of
writing he is probably wandering in the forest, none the
worse as far as I am concerned.

After this, for many days — to be exact, twelve days
and their twin nights — we had nothing more encourag-
ing to vary our thoughts than regrets for the lost bull,
though on one occasion while walking down a forest
glade we saw the long, Roman-nosed face of a cow-elk
regarding us steadfastly from a little distance. Of
course there was no shooting, and the woods soon
swallowed her up. Several times in the course of those

160 HUNTING CAMPS.

twelve days we knew ourselves to be close to elk, but
always in thick timber, so that sometimes we could hear
the great creatures feeding and moving, but not once
did we gain the slightest glimpse of them. These were
generally still bright days with wandering winds, such
as are in their season very pleasant to all the world
but to fishermen and hunters, two deserving classes of
the community often much maltreated by the weather.

Elk-hunting was for the time a game of hide and
seek, played out in the vast labyrinth of the woods. On
several occasions a very slight softening of the iron
countenance of fate would have given us all we needed,
but the ill-luck held remorselessly until even Peder
spoke no more of " vera bool," although he marched
on untiringly over endless kilometres of wood and hill.
We wore out our Norwegian boots in our long-day
tramps, and existed on hope, jladbrod, trout, and an
occasional bottle of beer, and — the irony of it — the
meat of a bull-elk, one of two which had been shot by
Geoffrey Gathorne-Hardy in a beautiful right and left
higher up the valley 1

Poor Peder ! darkness clouded his spirit, but only for
short intervals. Evening by evening he would say,
" Bismarck kill big bool imorgen," but neither the next
morning nor many subsequent mornings brought us in
sight of a male elk. The only event worth mentioning
during this interval might have ended disastrously.
We were hunting on Gartland, and about nine o'clock in
the morning were crossing an area of unusually dense
forest. Bismarck had been trotting along listlessly, so
that we were therefore all the more delighted when he
suddenly stopped short and then commenced to pull
hard up-wind. From the way in which he carried

The Valley of the Xarnsen.

AN ELK SEASON. 161

his head Peder at once said " Elg," and intimated by
signs that the dog had the scent straight from the
animal's body. A good Norwegian hunter can read
a great deal from the demeanour of his dog, and can
always approximately tell the distance, small or great,
from the quarry. I myself learned to do this to some
extent with Bismarck, for when close to an elk the
hair along his back stood straight up and his tail curled
more and more aggressively over his back.

In the present instance every sign proclaimed the
nearness of the elk, and we passed into a pine-wood,
treading most carefully. Five minutes' walk through
this wood brought us to a little clearing, across which
we went quickly and into the shadows on the farther
side. We were now in a tongue of woodland that
extended out upon the hillside. My attention was
fixed upon the hound ; his hair continued stiffly erect,
and I made up my mind that the elk was on the other
side of a very thick clump just ahead, and, signing to
Peder to keep back, I cautiously advanced.

I was soon aware of something brown on the far
side of the bush, and very gently put another foot
forward. Probably I have never been in greater danger
than at that moment, for I saw suddenly that this was
no elk towards which the hound had led me, but anotJier
hunter, who was as intent on my progress as I on his
stillness. He, as a matter of fact, was in no danger,
for he was standing in the open ; moreover, I would
never shoot without looking at and getting a fairly
good idea of a bull's horns. But the Norwegian was
out for meat, and meat alone ; he would have preferred
a cow to a bull, and the native hunter is very apt to
fire at anything that moves in a bush. The man

H.C. M

162 HUNTING CAMPS.

turned out to be a hunter employed by the farmer who
owned the rights upon the adjoining land, which chanced
to be unlet that season. He had been sent out to shoot
meat for the winter provender, and had wandered over
the boundary into Gartland. Why the dog led us to
him I cannot explain. Peder assured me he had never
done anything of the kind before, and certainly after-
wards, while hunting with me, he never made that kind
of mistake again.

On the 26th of September, with only five days of the
season remaining, we set out for the largest of my
rights, the chief drawback to which lay in the obligatory
three hours' climb before the good elk-ground could be
reached. There was, however, a convenient saeter to
which we journeyed with some of the feelings of a
forlorn hope. We started in company with Geoffrey
Gathorne-Hardy, he of the right and left, who had
come down the valley the previous evening, bringing
with him news of a fine bull killed by his brother.

The sun was high when we came in sight of the
saeter, a solid log hut roofed over with turf on which
grew long grass and flowers that waved in the wind.

After visiting it we climbed over the hill and came
out up on the fjeld beyond it ; here Bismarck took a
" luft " and led us to the fresh tracks of a cow and a
calf, which we saw again later among the trees of a
neighbouring right. The dog was pulled off the trail
and taken, close hauled, in another direction. We next
entered a grove of young birches, which drew blank,
but emerging from it Bismarck began to show interest
and to sniff the wind that was blowing down the further
cliff. It was most curious to watch him from the
instant he lost his indifference. As owing to the

AN ELK SEASON. 163

unsteady breeze it was impossible to locate the elk
immediately, we sat down to give Bismarck time to
investigate and to think it out. He settled very quietly
on his haunches, the thick white and grey hair on his
neck bristling a little, and the muscles of his nose
twitching and working. At first the airs were light,
but presently followed a stronger gust, at which
Bismarck rose and began to lead away resolutely nearly
up-wind, under a sky already darkening for storm.

Peder, of course, whispered great expectations in his
broken words, and sincerely I hoped that this time they
would be justified by events, though to tell the truth I
was doubtful, for the hound's nose was so extraordinarily
fine that he had often led us a mile to an elk-trail, and
I feared that in the present instance history might once
again repeat itself. However, I was happily disappointed,
for at the end of half an hour I caught a glimpse of the
hindquarters of an elk, the rest of the body being
screened from sight by some trees. It was impossible
to tell whether it was a bull or no, but while we crept
round in hopes of getting a view of the head Bismarck
broke into a whine, and the long-sought elk was skrcemt
and making off at full speed through the wood. Peder
suppressed Bismarck in a definite though momentary
manner with the lunch-bag just as I commenced run-
ning to cut off the elk. Some half-way up the hillside
I sighted the animals, two of them — a bull and a cow.
The cow dashed on, but before the bull could follow her
1 took as steady an aim as I was capable of after my run
and thought I heard the bullet strike. On the shot, as
do all but the best elk- hounds, Bismarck broke into a
series of excited yaps.

By this time the bull had dashed in among some

M 2

164 HUNTING CAMPS.

pine trees, but the cow had run in a circle and now
reappeared ; she looked at us for a moment and then
also decamped up the hill, where in the shadow of the
trees I obtained another shot at the bull as he melted
away into the dusk of the forest. This shot was fired
at a great distance, and I had no reason to think it took
effect. On coming up to his tracks, however, we found
signs that he had been badly struck, and after following
the trail for some little time I directed Peder to sit
down for a rest and light his pipe. He was very
jubilant and very sure we should get the bull.

In the course of half an hour we started again, took
up the track, and, save for one check by a small river,
through which the elk had waded, made good pro-
gress, though it was sometimes necessary to move with
extreme caution, for the signs all the time showed us
to be quite close to the wounded animal.

The elk led us in a complete circle, and for a long
distance, so that when dusk was falling we had returned
to the hillside upon which the first shot was fired, and
at the foot of which lay a lake of some size. Into this
the elk had waded ; we could see his huge footmarks
showing through the still, clear water upon which the
evening glow still shone.

The elk had waded out deep into the lake and then
begun to swim, so we lost no time in making our way
to the nearest point on the opposite shore where he
would be likely to land, and commenced to search for
his trail. But, although we searched long, we came
upon no indication of his having come ashore. Even
with Bismarck's help we failed to discover any trace of
him, and long after dark we returned, worn out and
bitterly disappointed, to the saeter.

The Fiskuiu Fos.

AN ELK SEASON. 165

Once we gained this haven of rest the fire was quickly
lit in the big iron stove, its light shining out upon the
darkness until we closed the door and prepared to take
our meal in a despondent silence. It is strange how
persistently the sting of a lost opportunity frets the
heart of a hunter ; a successful or difficult shot has not
the power to elate him in any corresponding degree.
He is apt, and rightly apt, to give the credit to the
modern weapon of precision. But let him miss a shot,
a fair shot, or, far worse, lose a beast after wounding it,
then it is well to draw a veil over his next hours. So it
was with me while I watched the firelight gleaming on
the rude walls and endeavoured to account for the
disappearance of the elk, an effort in which Peder's
comment gave me no aid, as he repeatedly pronounced
the lost bull " an evil beast." I concluded finally that
either the animal's strength had failed in the middle of
his long swim across the lake, which was possible,
though to my mind exceedingly improbable, or that
after entering the water he had turned back northwards
and regained the shelter of the woods from which he
originally emerged.

Presently Bismarck began to growl, and almost
immediately a bearded face was pressed against the
window pane, then the door opened to admit its owner.
Peder introduced him in form " Dis mann haf elg ve
schutt dag," which seemed to indicate that our visitor
was the farmer on whose rights I had fired at the elk,
and that had I killed it he would have become the
pleased possessor of the resulting meat. Acutely con-
scious that in the eyes of Mathias my shot should have
procured a winter's supply of food for his household, I
felt there was nothing for me to say for myself. But

166 HUNTING CAMPS.

Peder was clearly far from holding the same opinion, for
he broke out into a rising tide of Norsk narrative.
Meantime Mathias had been supplied with hot tea,
and to its comforting effects I attributed the almost
seraphic smile which, as he listened, slowly overspread
his weather- wilted features. Then he in his turn began
to speak, while Peder translated after his own fashion,
and I learned the signification of that breadth of smile.
I gathered that Mathias prophesied smooth things ; it
appeared that he had a boat upon the lake into which
the elk had plunged, and he predicted that we should
get the animal, and that he and his should yet eat the
meat thereof. At length he took his departure, it
having been arranged that he and his boat should be at
my disposal a little before dawn.

The hour found us at the rendezvous. We stood
high on the side of a hill and watched the mists coiling
in the valleys below us. At first the summits which
rose all round showed like giants wading shoulder-high
in a foggy sea, but as the sun mounted higher into the
sky the mists began to uncurl and heave and finally to
drain away into the warmth of the upper air. We
descended quickly to the lake-side, and the woods sweet
with dew and dawn seemed still and listening as we
pushed out upon the bosom of the water. In the boat
I found a cast antler of great size and beauty, over
which I sighed, and which I suspect Mathias had placed
there as a spur to my enthusiasm. Tyr knows it needed
none ! Before long we arrived at the spot where the
elk had taken to the water ; there we landed and began
our search in a new direction. We had not gone far
when Bismarck suddenly bounded forward on his leash.
Mathias crowed in his delight, and in another instant

AN ELK SEASON. 167

Peder and I were hastening through the trees on the
rediscovered trail. Evidently the elk had entered the
lake, and had either found himself too weak to cross it
or, as I think, simply meant to throw us off his track, and
had for a time succeeded only too well in doing so.
Bismarck now raced along the trail at a great pace. At
length we jumped the elk among some pine trees three
hundred yards ahead, and then for another steady two
hours we followed him. At the end of that time I had
almost given up hope that he would ever stop ; as we
passed through a young wood, we were aware of the huge,
high-shouldered beast standing in the middle of a marsh
with his back to us. Peder urged me to shoot at once,
but the animal was in a bad position, and I was deter-
mined to take no more chances. He was quite unaware
of our presence, and I waited a little, hoping he might
turn broadside on. But he did not move, and I began
to be afraid of his starting off again. I aimed carefully
and fired. He was about one hundred and eighty yards
from me, and at the shot he turned, giving me as he did
so the first clear sight of an elk's shoulder I had yet had
in Norway. I immediately fired again, and on receiving
this last bullet he collapsed. Immediately Peder ran up
and Bismarck leaped upon the body, tearing out tufts
of its hair, rolling on it and barking. I found that two
of my shots had missed the bull. When we came to
examine the head we found, as I had expected, that it
was a poor one, although — and this is very frequently
the case — the body of the elk was both large and heavy.
After using the knife Peder and I retraced our steps to
the lake, and I waited on the nearer side while my
hunter and his dog went off to fetch Mathias, who
presently appeared with his entire family, including a

168 HUNTING CAMPS.

toddler of about four years, all vociferous and happy.
Two other farmers, part-owners 1 suspect, also turned
up. Mathias took a long look at the bull, assured him-
self that it was very fat, then crossed over to me and
solemnly shook hands, a ceremony which is the equiva-
lent of the Norwegian " thank you." He and the whole
party were in high spirits, for the elk was in size and
condition a most satisfactory perquisite. There is rather
a shrill-voiced humanitarianism which condemns the
killing of wild game. I think if these good people
could but see the joy of the Norsk farmers when an elk
is killed on their ground they might incline to a fairer
judgment of the hunter and his craft.

After giving final instructions to Mathias concerning
the head and horns, Peder and I resumed our quest,
and I shall always look upon the later events of that
afternoon as among the luckiest of my hunting experi-
ences. About eleven we lunched upon the hillside, and
afterwards commenced a long and quite fruitless search
for elk. For five hours we walked steadily, visiting
many likely haunts, and during the whole time never
came upon a single track or sign.

It was already four o'clock when we found ourselves
upon another part of the same hill on which we had
started the bull the day before. The slope was even
more than usually precipitous and covered with a dense
growth of birch. As we had so far seen no track and
the dog had given no warning, I was just about to give
the word for home (some dozen or more switchback
miles away) when Bismarck bristled and began to lead
forward in a manner suggestive of possibilities.

The wind had now changed and was blowing up the
hillside behind us, so we took a wide cast to cover our

AN ELK SEASON. 169

advance, lest the elk, which we were now pretty sure
was not far off, should, as is the frequent habit of these
animals, have lain down to windward of his own trail.
It was most fortunate that we did take this precaution,
for in a very few minutes Peder turned upon me a face
literally white with excitement. " Bi-i-g bo-o-ol," he
whispered with a drawl of prodigious meaning on both
words. I peered over his shoulder and there, sure
enough, at a distance of not more than two hundred
yards below us, I at last saw the heavy dark head,
bulged nose, and large palmated antlers of a truly big
bull. The rest of his body was hidden by the thick
green of a bush, as were also, I discovered later, a cow
and two calves, the companions of the bull.

While Peder remained behind with Bismarck I
cautiously stalked the elk, my heart thumping against
my ribs, for one may go many seasons to Norway and
not meet with such horns as it seemed to me this bull
carried. The wind was exactly right, my way lay
across moss, and altogether it appeared that fortune,
who seldom does things by halves, was indeed in a
generous mood. About a hundred and twenty yards
away I settled for my shot, and just before I took it,
looking back I was aware of Peder 's face, paler than
ever, peeping above a rock ; his hands I did not see, but
well I knew how they were occupied and that Bismarck
would not give tongue till the critical moment was
over.

I paused a moment to steady myself before drawing
the trigger, and could see the transient gleams of sun-
shine upon the white birch trunks springing from their
bed of green moss and the bronze and gold of wild
raspberry leaves that shone in the duller background.

170 HUNTING CAMPS.

All I could define to shoot at was the head and neck,
and, not wishing to smash the skull, I chose the neck.
At the shot the elk bounded to his feet and was lost
to view. I heard a tremendous crashing in the forest
and caught sight of the cow and the half-grown calves
swinging along in full flight.

A moment's pause and then the bull blundered from
shadow to shadow. He was struck in the neck, and
not knowing where the shot came from he ran towards
me, when a second bullet sent him rolling down the
hillside. He was quite dead before even Peder could
reach him. After eighteen blank days, to secure two
bull elk in seven hours ! And what a beauty this last
head was ! The elk stood 5 feet 10^ to 11 inches
at the shoulder, and the horns showed thirteen points,
with a broad and handsome palmation. As we stood
above him both Peder and I agreed that the blank days
were at last atoned for. But the first elk had cost us
hours of unremitting pursuit, and we were wearily tired.
I have wondered since how we should have managed
that twelve long miles which lay between us and home
if, having at length met with the " vera bool," I had
failed in my shot and lost him.

On the following day Peder and I drove over to
Gartland betimes, for since the luck appeared to have
changed in our favour we were determined to force it.
In fact so early did we arrive that it was not yet light
when we turned our cariole into the yard of the farm,
and even the early-rising Norsk farmer was not astir.
Soon, however, we had unharnessed the horse and,
having seen to his comforts, were making the best of
our way into the woods. Gartland was, as I have already
mentioned, the most closely-wooded portion of all my

HUNTING CAMPS.

i(

not i
inc.

ne to B -is the head and neck,

skull, I chose the neck.

t th« i to his feet and was lost

•us crashing in the forest

:id the half-grown calves

n the bull blundered from

struck in the neck, and

ime from he ran towards

it him rolling down the

tore even Peder could

days, to secure two

his last

d home

a the ;k vcra bool," I had
•i him.

^ day Peder and I drove over to

for since the luck appeared to have

favour we were determined to force it.

In !';• v did we arrive that it was not yet light

whej; cd our cariole into the yard of the farm,

and ;irly-rising Nt mer was not astir.

Soon, h we had unharnessed the horse and,

rts. were m.'tking the best of
into th- \ have already

• portion of all my

I

AN ELK SEASON. 171

ground, and in ordinary seasons these pine forests
undoubtedly hold elk, but during that particular year
they were, owing to the extreme stillness of the weather,
very difficult to hunt. The light frosts of the morning
formed cat-ice in every small hollow and cranny, and
as the cattle had been recently on the hills their tracks
were roofed in with white, so that in many places almost
every step we took was a clear advertisement of our
presence.

On this morning, however, the sun rose invisibly
behind heavy rain-clouds, and soon the wind was thresh-
ing and moaning among the trees ; I need not say how
we welcomed this beautiful elk-hunting weather after
the quiet sunniness of the last days. Having followed
the river (where in spite of the turmoil of the rain I
<;ould see several good trout lying) for some distance,
we struck upwards, and for a couple of hours hunted
the precipitous side of the mountain without any success.
At length we passed over the summit and emerged
upon a kind of rocky terrace set high above a great
forest of pines. After carefully examining what open
ground there was without seeing anything, Peder rolled
one or two large stones down the hillside in the hope
of disturbing any animal that might happen to be
lying close. This manoeuvre proving quite barren of
result, we descended once more to the foothills, and
there at last Bismarck began to lead straight up-wind.

The ever-hopeful Peder at once whispered " Bool ! "
and then " Naer, naer!" which I took — I believe
rightly — to mean near. I imagine Peder judged that
Bismarck had the scent direct from the animal or
animals, but that he was mistaken in this conclusion was
^quickly made plain, for in about five minutes or more

172 HUNTING CAMPS.

we came upon the trail bending away to the westward
across the wind. A hasty examination showed that
there were three elk, papa, mamma, and baby, or, as
Peder put it, " Vera bool, coo," and then signs signifying
a little fellow.

How exciting were those whispered consultations
with Peder in the pine forests, and, for the number of
words used, very full of meat ! And small wonder,
since neither ever spoke without having something
really necessary to say, and our limited knowledge of
each other's national tongue forced us to compress our
thoughts into two or three words at most.

Now at last the real glory of elk-hunting was ours.
We could see from every movement of the hound that
we were close, very close, to the quarry. At this crisis
one of my boots — I was wearing red rubber soles with
buckskin tops — commenced to creak, so I removed it
and then crept on over the chilly ground until my foot
lost all feeling. Within another few yards the wood
began to thin, and as we came to the edge of it I saw
the three elk. They were standing two hundred yards
away in the middle of a marsh about a quarter of a mile
in width. The bull was the nearest to us, but alas ! he
was by no means a " vera bool." I turned to Peder and
shook my head. At this Peder began to be very
troubled. " Schutt ! Gartland farmer no elg ! " he
whispered reproachfully, which was quite true. For on
the Gartland rights we had killed no elk, and there
was the farmer's winter meat supply to be considered.
Still it seemed a pity to kill the bull, for it was but a
three-year-old, and in five or six years more might carry
a good head. Who knows ? But Peder had a second
argument to back his advice. " Schutt bool ! " and he

AN ELK SEASON. 173

pointed significantly at Bismarck. I knew all that he
meant ; the old Norwegian phrase, " Blood for the dog-
meat for the man," expressed it, for in Norway it is
supposed to be bad, and it undoubtedly is very bad, for
a good elk-hound to lead to the quarry and be dis-
appointed by no kill. For this reason many a Nor-
wegian will spare nothing, bull or cow, tracked down
by his dog.

I felt there was no more to be said, and as the elk
had not moved much I settled myself against a tree
and got the white sight behind his shoulder. At the
shot he rushed for cover. It was difficult to shoot
again, because the cow and her calf had run in between
him and me, but I felt sure he would not go far. This
turned out to be the case, for we found the bull,
deserted by cow and calf, standing on the trail which
led to the saeter. When he saw us he turned and tried
to go up on the hill, but he had no strength left, and
another shot finished him. He proved to be a fine,
heavy animal, and as such was appreciated by the
Gartland farmer.

The day following was the last day of September, and
therefore the final day of the season, so, accompanied
as usual by Peder and Bismarck, I was off early. Until
late in the afternoon, when Bismarck found a family
of elk, a bull and two cows, in some very thick forest,
the hours passed quite without incident.

But once the elk were found there ensued the usual
long effort to get a shot in the thick timber. For
nearly half an hour we were close to them, and it is
possible that had there been any wind I might have
obtained a chance, but in the intense stillness the victory
fell to the great beasts, for, although at one time within

174 HUNTING CAMPS.

fifty yards, I never caught a glimpse of them, and
finally at the cracking of a twig they made off with all
the honours of war, for their escape was chiefly due to
the strategical position in thick cover that they had
taken up.

We had followed their tracks until we found that
the elk had crossed the Elstad boundary and sought
sanctuary in the lower pine forest beyond. We used all
that was left of the daylight in a barren search, at the
end of which only five hours of darkness remained of
the hunting season of 1905, and there was nothing for
us to do but to trudge home to the farm.

As I walked behind Peder along the forest paths
I reviewed the closing season. On the eighteen elk-
rights which I had leased I had actually seen four bulls
and thirteen cows, as well as on three occasions a blur
of moving iron-grey coat to which I could not assign
a sex — all things considered, a not inspiring total ; and
yet I am convinced that my rights were good and the
comparative absence of elk was due to the peculiarity
of the season, for the warm, fine weather had been
continuous and had lasted much longer than usual.
On this account the elk had lingered later than is
their custom on the edge of the high fjeld instead of,
as in ordinary years, seeking the shelter of the pine
forests. It was not until the last two days of the
hunting season that I found any in the lower woodlands,
that made up the greater proportion of my ground.
Had the weather been stormy the elk would probably
have descended to take refuge in the valleys at the
least a week earlier than actually happened in that
year. I have reason to believe that during the con-
cluding five days there were six elk on Elstad where

AN ELK SEASON. 175

only one had been during the greater part of the
season.

Personally I found the Norwegian mountains harder
ground to hunt than any I had ever tried. One often
hears of the forty and even fifty mile walks taken by
elk-hunters, but I doubt if these distances, accurately
measured with a chain, would work out at the same
figures. As to running after a loose hound, as is done
on the easier ground over the Swedish border, the man
who could run over the Elstad or Gartland mountains
I have yet to meet. For myself it wras all I could do
to walk over them day after day for many consecutive
days.

As to the rank among field sports in which elk-
hunting should be placed, it seems to me that for a
hunter who worked his own dog the sport would be
magnificent, and his chances of success — owing to the
more silent approach possible to the single-handed
stalker — would be more than doubled. For such sport,
however, a very well-trained dog would be required,
as before the hunter fired he must put his foot on the
leash, and a 40 Ib. or 60 Ib. dog straining to release him-
self would not conduce to straight shooting. Of course
once the elk was located it might be possible to leave
the hound tied to a tree, but the Norwegian elk-hounds
that in such circumstances would not betray their
presence vocally are few and far between.

The Norwegian system of training elk- hounds seems
to be largely a matter of taking advantage of inherited
instinct. Before the season opened the farmer Kristian
Fiskum, the most famous shot and elk-hunter in
Namdalen, wished to try a young dog about eighteen
months old, which had never been out after elk, and

176 HUNTING CAMPS.

for this purpose I accompanied him. We had walked
for some hours, when the dog picked up the wind and
led us to the fairly-fresh tracks of a cow and calf, and a
little later brought us quite noiselessly within two hundred
yards or so of the animals. Kristian was greatly pleased
with this success, and on the strength of it took the
dog out regularly. It was over this dog that later
Geoffrey Gathorne- Hardy killed the right and left I
have alluded to. Of course, as the hound is always on
leash, and thus under control, there are but two qualities
necessary for him to possess — a good nose and a silent
tongue.

The most famous elk-hound of recent years in
Namdalen was Kristian's Bismarck, which in 1905 had
to be carried all the long distances from place to place,
but would still lead his master to elk. In the hands
of a good trainer it is more than probable that an
average elk-hound might be educated into an almost
perfect ally in the chase of the great deer.

Although on the whole the Norway elk do not suffer
greatly from out-of-season killing and year by year
they are, I hope and believe, steadily increasing in
numbers, yet but for the game laws they could and
would certainly be exterminated. For towards the
beginning of winter, upon the ground where we hunted,
there arise occasional little groups of drab dwellings,
which are presently over-laid by the all-whitening
storms, and passing men on ski see flat Lapp faces,
grimed with the smoke of upland fires, peering at them
from behind the trees. To escape the rigours of the
cold the Lapps desert their summer haunts on the high
fjeld and drive their reindeer herds into the lower
ground, and even in spite of the legal restrictions which

Kristian's famous Elk-hound in Hunting Harness.

•• Winter's Meat."
Shot and Photographed by A. C. Gathome-Hardy.

AN ELK SEASON. 177

exist it can hardly be doubted that the snow which
periodically blots out much of the northern world covers
also the traces of the Lapp poacher's shot as well as
the Lapshoe trail of the man whose finger touches the
trigger.

So the season ended for us, and on the following

morning a small procession of carioles followed each

other down the deep descent from the skyds station,

we bade a regretful farewell to our Norwegian friends,

and set out through the sombre forests on our way

home. The gloom of the pines was now emblazoned

with the autumn gold of the alders shivering in the

cold wind ; the soft green of the mosses and ferns and

tall rustling plants were touched by frost to fiercer

colours — all was changed, the country no longer looked

as we had seen it in August. There were five of us,

accompanied by Kristian and his son, with sundry

cariole boys. At a farm on the way we heard with

some envy of a recently-killed bear, but the only other

incident of the long, cold drive occurred on the forest

road within half a mile of the hotel on the beach of the

Snaasenvand — a large capercailzie cock, disturbed by

the passing of the foremost cariole, flew out of the trees,

turned up the road, and skimmed so close above my

head that I only missed him by a matter of inches

when I struck at him with the whip-butt. After

spending the night at the hotel, where we dined oft

seven different kinds of cheese, we found our way by

motor-boat and cariole to the Trondjhem Fjord, and

thence by steamer to the ancient capital of the Vikings,

where at that period the population were wildly excited

over the question of the separation from Sweden, which

has since become an historical fact.

H.C. x

CHAPTER VII.

MOOSE HUNTING AND MOOSE CALLING IN CANADA.

IN June, 1906, I made plans to spend the following
October in the Canadian woods and to attempt to
secure that much-coveted trophy of American big game
— a good moose. I was the more eager to hunt the
greatest of deer, because, in the first place, I had long
desired to shoot a moose, and, in the second, as I have
narrated, I had passed the hunting season of the previous
year in pursuit of his congener in Europe, and it
certainly adds an immense attraction to any form of
sport, if one has had experience of it under different
conditions and in another environment.

On the llth of October I landed at Quebec, and having
been given permission by Mr. W. W. Price, a member
of the well-known Canadian family, to hunt moose in
his large preserves on the south side of the St. Lawrence,
I lost no time. Thanks to the kind offices of my friend
Mr. Frank W. Ross, arrangements were already made
and waiting for my arrival ; thus I was enabled to set out
on the following day. As a first step my hunter, Ed
Atkins, and I travelled to Rimouski, where we slept the
night, and in the morning started in a buck-board on a
thirty-mile drive, the last stages of which lay through
the bush. This was my first view of the Canadian
forests, and I had the good fortune to see them at the
most beautiful time of the year, when the foliage of the

Our Quarters at Depot Lake.

A One-man Camp.

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 179

hardwood had not yet all fallen and each maple
displayed its full glory of crimson leaves.

As we drove we heard — to use Mr. Kipling's words —
" the monstrous female voices " of the fog-sirens piercing
the light mists which overspread the river. It is, by the
way, a curious fact that the noise of a siren, heard at a
distance, resembles in some degree the call of the cow
moose. All round the Canadian coast this fact has
been noticed, and moose — generally young and un-
sophisticated beasts — have been, and continually are.
killed upon the open seashore flats, whither they have
been lured by the song of their strange charmer. In a
word, the fog-horns have brought many a welcome joint
of moose meat to vary the dietary at the salmon
cannaries.

Our objective was a log hut on the margin of Depot
Lake. All along the earlier part of the road we met
with French-Canadian settlers, almost every one of
whom carried a single-barrelled shot-gun on the chance
of seeing a covey of ruffed or Canada grouse, which
at this season of the year are often found on the edges
of the trail and forest paths. At the last house we
happened to fall in with the warden of the district,
Eleazar Hinds, and I arranged that he should accompany
us, as he was familiar with the woods in which I proposed
to hunt.

About an hour before sundown we arrived at a point
beyond which the buck-board could not go, so shoulder-
ing our packs we began our four-miles tramp to the
hut. Excepting where the trail was flooded by the
workings of beavers, the walking was easy, and we had
gone nearly half way when Ed found the track of
a cow moose that had crossed only a short time before.

N 2

180 HUNTING CAMPS.

Soon after dark we reached the hut on Depot Lake, a
spot which has since been made the headquarters of a
shooting and fishing club. The hut proved most
comfortable, being fitted with rough bedsteads, good
stoves, and a small library of books, altogether a far
more luxurious hunting camp than any to which I was
accustomed.

Edward Atkins had been for eight years a Maine
guide at the camps of his uncle, the well-known Will
Atkins, who is said to give his clients more sport and
to manage his camps more adequately than any other
man in the same line of business. Ed proved to be one
of the keenest hunters, and is certainly a good moose
caller, and I liked him from the first, a liking which
has been increased by the five other trips we have since
then made together in Canada.

We had dinner, and were before long in bed, and,
though we heard it rain in the night, we woke to find
the morning splendidly fine. As compared with the
woods among which I had just spent some weeks in
Newfoundland, I was much struck by the height and
growth of the Canadian trees, and especially of the
grand hardwood ridges. The lake, which lay in front of
the hut, was crowded to its very verge by the forests,
and open spaces were few and far between. The
country looked in all respects an excellent one for
moose, and I was not a little glad to find myself well
launched on a trip that had been dwelling on my mind
with a good deal of persistency for more than two
years.

We spent a lazy day, as Ed thought it wiser not
to disturb the ground for calling, though at the same
time he doubted whether the bulls would still answer at

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 181

so late a date in the season (October 13th), and I am
inclined to think they would not have paid much heed
to a less skilful caller. During the forenoon, quite
close to camp, we shot three ruffed grouse with a
small -22, which we had brought for the purpose.
All through our stay in the woods this rifle gave
us a good deal of amusement, as it made hardly any
noise and so did not in the least alarm any animals
that might be in the neighbourhood, while the birds we
brought down with it supplied many of our meals with
uncommonly good spatchcock.

Before going further it may be well to correct some
rather prevalent ideas upon the subject of moose
calling. There are persons who, having had no actual
experience of this, in many cases, very high form of
sport, criticise " calling " as an unworthy way in which
to kill moose. Since the day of which I write I have
hunted moose in every fashion — that is, by still-hunting
in the woods, by calling, and upon the snow ; and it is
my opinion that calling can give the hunter a thrill
almost unequalled in any other form of sport. It is
true that the moose comes to the hunter and the
hunter does not (as in the theoretically highest methods
of sport he should) go to the moose ; but the science
and the knowledge of woodcraft that can draw so shy
an animal to accept the caller's voice for that of his
mate raises calling to a high rank, at any rate for the
hunter who himself uses the horn.

It must also be remembered that on such occasions
the moose almost invariably " comes in " on the wrong
side of the lake, and as the time at which he arrives is
generally an hour and a half or so after sunset, he is in
the shadow of the waterside trees, and the distance is

182 HUNTING CAMPS.

often two hundred yards or over, it thus needs a clear
eye and a steady hand to save oneself the sleepless
night that a miss inevitably entails. Moose calling
may seem to the tyro a very easy way of "getting
your moose," and so once in six times no doubt it is,
but the reader will possibly understand my point of
view more clearly if, without further preamble, I go on
to describe the experiences which fell to my lot with
the first two moose that fortune sent within range of
my rifle.

About five o'clock, then, on the first evening I spent
in the Canadian woods Ed and I launched our canoe on
the little lake which we had chosen and paddled up
towards the head of it, where the surface of the water
was green with aquatic plants.

The sun had just sunk through the tree stems, and
had been succeeded by the little cold wind which so
often blows at that hour, when we landed, and Ed,
taking the horn, gave the calls of the cow moose. In
words it is impossible to describe these wild sounds,
even although it was my fortune later to hear a cow
singing her love-song at no great distance, so I will not
attempt to do so. The noise is something between a
bellow and a moan and is repeated three times, the final
call being more prolonged than the others.

It would seem that for moose calling the standing
position is necessary, as Ed would never call from the
canoe. To begin with, he never used the bull's call, as
is generally done in Western America ; but then it is
said, and doubtless with truth, that in Western America
the moose is a much less sophisticated animal than his
brethren of the forests of Maine and Lower Canada.
Also the number of bulls is probably far greater in the

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 183

districts where the bull call is so successful, and conse-
quently each bull has to win his mate by ordeal of
battle ; whereas in Maine and Lower Canada the law
which protects cows absolutely has been in force long
enough to have brought about an immense increase in
their numbers.

On the evening I write of the comparative stillness of
the weather was greatly in our favour, and the calls
must have carried quite three or even four miles, being
aided in this by a high ridge near by, which caught and
hurled the sound onward.

Almost immediately after the calls darkness came on
apace. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed ; a squirrel hissed
and chattered from a tree, an owl mournfully saluted the
night, and the shadows of the woodland deepened round
the margin of the lake. Then followed a silence till a
musk-rat came swimming down, and suddenly, either
seeing or winding us, dived with a click like a cork being
drawn from a bottle ; and then the owl once more.

Half an hour passed thus before Ed called again ;
another half-hour, and yet another. It was not until
after the fourth time of calling that from far away we
heard first the sound of a breaking stick and then the
grunt of a bull moose. Ed quivered like a dog
drawing on game. For twelve years he has been calling
and shooting moose, and, being a true sportsman if
ever there was one, he felt all the cool yet glorious
eagerness of his kind.

" He'll be twenty minutes coming in, I dare say.
He's a mighty mean moose not to have come earlier,"
whispered Ed. And indeed the light by this time
was not very good, although the stars were struggling
feebly through an army of clouds.

184 HUNTING CAMPS.

From the moment when we first heard the bull moose
onwards the drama enthralled us, especially when a
second actor, or, if you prefer it, the feminine interest,
entered upon the scene. It has been said that the bull
moose is monogamous, but this is certainly not the case,
and on that night we had very good proof that he is
not altogether constant. For presently from some-
where in the woods a cow called and the bull answered.
Ed was much upset at this rivalry. " How can I get
him away from her ? " said he ; " but I'll try."

Try he did, though it was slow work, the bull some-
times coming towards us at quite a fair pace, but at
others wandering back. As he came closer Ed and
I got into the canoe. We sat there for what seemed
a hopelessly long time, until at last we heard the bull
enter the water about a quarter of a mile away on
the farther side of the lake. Ed did not dare to call
now, but rilling the bark-horn with water let it trickle
into the lake through the narrow end of the horn.
The bull almost at once began to work his way round
by the head of the lake, which was lucky, as had he
taken the other direction he must have winded us. He
had about six or seven hundred yards to travel, and
had not, as far as our ears could tell us — for of course
we could see nothing — covered half the distance when
the deserted cow also entered the water a little lower
down.

Now the two huge animals began to answer each
other, while we, being by this time out on the bosom
of the lake, listened to their matrimonial differences.
We put into shore and again poured water through the
horn to attract the bull's attention, after which we
heard him approaching steadily, and paddled noiselessly

Guide Packing a Moose Head shot bv G. M. Gathorne-Hardv.

Ed Adkins with Birchbark Horn.

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 185

to meet him. It was clear that he had advanced
to the end of a small grassy or marshy point, which
thrust itself out into the water at the head of the lake.
Here he stood. We also paused, for we were within
seventy or eighty yards. He grunted two or three
times and began to plunge — at least, so we, listening in
the darkness, imagined, for we heard him tearing his
hoofs out of the soft mud. Under cover of these
noises we paddled nearer, and soon we were within
thirty yards. I imagined I could now see the animal's
eyes, shining points in the gloom.

Unfortunately a light mist had risen from the surface
of the water, which added to the dimness, so that it
was impossible to discover what manner of horns the
bull carried. Recognising this, Ed urged the canoe
forward with a silent paddle, and carried us so close
that we were within fifteen yards. The bull had heard
something, for he advanced a step or two into the water.

I was now in a dilemma, for, though I had for some
unexplained and unexplainable reason made up my
mind that the animal was a fine one, I could see
nothing of his horns but a whitish blur, which may,
and probably did, exist only in my imagination. I had
him covered all this time with my rule, but was
naturally unwilling to fire. The cow called repeatedly
in a complaining fashion ; she was about a hundred yards
away on the same shore of the lake.

In the province of Quebec the game laws only allow
one bull moose under each licence, but as the season
was already well advanced it seemed doubtful whether
I should meet with another. Yet to shoot without
seeing the head was manifestly impossible. The sky,
under the influence of what breeze there was, appeared

186 HUNTING CAMPS.

to be growing lighter, and I waited, straining my eyes
at the dark bulk which was so close. Perhaps only a
minute passed, though it seemed infinitely longer to
me, and then the affair was taken out of my hands.

I have said that the lake was shut in by tall timber,
and probably this fact caused an eddy of wind. I was
aware of a touch of cool air on the back of my head,
and at the same moment of a tremendous stampede in
front and another to the right . . . crash, crash, crash.

" Hear his horns in the timber ! " from Ed in a
voice of emotion. The sounds continued for a few
moments, the crashing of the gigantic deer as they
galloped off among the trees, and afterwards dead
silence, to be broken at length by the cry of an owl.

" Mean luck ! " said Ed ; " I'm sure he had great
horns." We turned the canoe about and made the
shore, then, lighting our lantern, walked dejectedly
back across the hardwood ridges to our log camp.
Such was my first experience of the Canadian moose.

I think we sat up till one o'clock in the morning
talking it all over and trying to see how we might have
bettered our fortunes. " He'd have been our moose if

we had had a jack same as Crook used at in

Province," remarked Ed ; " but jacking's against the
law."

In another place, and with quite another companion
than Ed, I have seen jacking for moose practised,
and I must acknowledge, whatever the ethics connected
with the method may be, that it presents risks to the
hunter as well as to the hunted. In order to "jack"
the hunters choose a dark, still night, and having bound
a lantern, the light in which can be shut off, upon a
mast rigged well forward in the canoe, the man who is

Drawing by Lady Helen Graham.
" Jacking " a Moose.

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 187

to shoot sits down in the bottom of the craft in such a
position that the lantern when opened shines over his
right shoulder and thus directly upon the sights of his
rifle. The call is then given in the usual way, after
which, if a bull " comes in," the canoe approaches him
within twenty or thirty yards, or even nearer. The
shooter then opens the jack, letting out a stream of
light upon the darkness of the night. The moose at
once, and almost invariably, charges, and, be it big bull,
cow, or yearling, has in four cases out of five to be shot
in self-defence, as the animal, maddened by the glare,
will rush right aboard the canoe, and an upset in the
eighteen-inch water which flows above the bottomless
mud round the margins of some Canadian lakes is more
than liable to end tragically.

Yet, though "jacking" is undoubtedly a poacher's
trick, great sport can be had in summer when on chosen
water. At that time of the year the moose are, as is
well known, almost amphibious in their habits, and in
the space of a couple of hours it is possible to " open "
upon half a dozen of the great deer. If the sportsman
carries no rifle he is within the law, and may safely
expect to have a considerable amount of excitement.
Lest I should be misunderstood, I may say that I have
never shot at a moose by lantern-light ; still, I have
" opened " on several, though I should not care to do
so without a companion at the stern of the canoe who
could be trusted to keep his head and do the right
thing instantly under sometimes trying circumstances
The view of a bull moose by lantern-light is remarkable
The horns, the gigantic Roman nose, the little infuriated
eyes, and the whole unwieldy, purposeful charge of
1,200 Ibs. of flesh and bone and horn, form together

188 HUNTING CAMPS.

a picture not easily forgotten — at least, that is the
testimony of all such as have seen the spectacle.

But to return to our camp of regrets. After wasting
some hours in useless heart-burnings, Ed and I
went to our beds of balsam boughs, and the episode of
my first meeting with a moose was closed.

There is a certain period of variable length — some-
times it lasts but two weeks, sometimes three or even
four — when, if the weather be fine, the moose becomes
master of the situation. This period begins when calling
ends — about the 6th to 12th of October — and continues
until the first snow falls. It is a time of hoar-frosts and
sunshine, when every stick in the woods is brittle and
every leaf crackles under even the most practised
moccasin. Tracking is difficult, noiseless approach
almost impossible. Moose are killed at this time, but
generally it is the hunter's luck rather than his skill
which stands his friend on these occasions.

But once the first snow falls and lies the chances of
the game veer round. After that nothing can move in
the woods without leaving an open advertisement of all
its doings and wanderings, and it is consequently easy
to tell the number of moose upon any given piece of
country, and even the approximate spread of their horns,
by measuring the spaces between close-growing trees
through which they have passed.

In this connection it may be noted that the range of
a moose is very limited — more limited, I think, than
that of the European elk. A moose lives, and in due
season dies, within a comparatively small ring of
country — a lake, a hardwood ridge, a thicket of alders,
a little marsh, such is his environment ; and even if
disturbed he rarely travels more than four miles, in

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 189

which respect he differs from the caribou, who, once his
suspicions are aroused, heads away at his mile-eating
gait, and travels for hours and even days.

The movements of moose in bulk are slow — so slow
that it takes as long as thirty years for a country to
become well stocked. Thus in the old days, before
legislation of a protective nature was thought of, the
moose were entirely killed out in certain districts. The
slaughter was committed in the winter, when the deer
had "yarded," at which time the old bulls will offer
battle if disturbed. Little chance had they against the
Indian or trapper with his muzzle-loader, who, having
discovered the beaten paths between the high walls of
snow, set to work and shot them down in cold blood for
the price of their pelts, the horns being abandoned, and
the meat left to feed bear, bird, and wolf, while their
slayer sought the settlement. In this manner the moose
were killed out, and for many years the great hunting-
grounds of the 'fifties remained deserted. Now, thanks
to the enforcement of laws more or less adequate, the
moose are finding their way back to their old haunts.
First one bull is seen, then a couple of years later two
or three, so that if the country is not much disturbed
each year shows a slow increase, until the district may
at length be classed as re-populated.

However, we have wandered far from the period just
antecedent to the " first snow," when the floor of the
woods is like a vast sounding-board that carries timely
warning to the huge ears of A Ices americanus. Thus
light frosts and still days followed the evening which
has been described, with occasionally a little wind at
sunset — the very worst weather for our purpose — so that
though we hunted by day, and evening found us at the

190 HUNTING CAMPS.

calling-place, we saw no warrantable moose. More
than once the tracks told their own tale ; one evening a
cow called, her weird love-song echoing through the
woods, and once a small bull substituted himself for his
betters.

Continued ill-fortune at length drove us to change
our hunting-ground, and we travelled north until we
reached a small lake shaped like an hour-glass. Here a
little tumble-down hut, so diminutive that the shortest
of men could not have slept in it without discomfort,
offered us shelter. We dared light no fire, for, in the
first place, we were within an amphitheatre of hills
where axe-strokes re-echoed, and, in the second, the
veering winds would have carried the smoke along the
ridges. Consequently, as the frost was by this time
hard, we endured some cold.

A windy evening — for the lake lay high — spoilt our
chances ; the next fell quiet and calm. Just before
sunset Ed and I paddled across and called, not
expecting an answer so early, but quite hopeful of
getting one later. The canoe, in the prow of which I
was sitting, was thrust in between two rocks, so that
I might watch the south shore while Ed watched the
north. The dusk was already turning to darkness, and
not a sound had I heard, when Ed whispered, " A
big bull has come in. If you can turn round, he's
your moose."

I turned with infinite caution, and following the line
of his extended arm saw in the black shadow a whitish
blur — the horns of the bull. He was about one hundred
and fifty yards distant, and standing so still that I
fancied he had heard us. I did not dare to risk a
whisper, but, making out as I thought the huge bulk of

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 191

his body, fired. He did not move, so I fired twice more,
each time aiming for the lungs, or rather where I
judged the lungs to be. The third cartridge stuck. I
tore at it with my fingers, while Ed said, " Quick ;
give him another ! " Before I could extract the car-
tridge and do so the moose had walked back into the
wood at the lakeside from which he had emerged. He
made no sound, but both of us were pretty sure all was
well, since we were agreed that we had heard the
bullets tell. Indeed, we lit the lantern and went to
look. All that we found, however, was a series of
tracks leading across a marsh and losing themselves
upon a high ridge beyond it. Even then I felt certain
that I had held straight, and that on the morrow we
must find the bull dead and at no great distance.

It was a chance remark of Ed's which awoke me
to a knowledge of the full depth of the tragedy.
" When, before you turned, I saw him come out
broadside on, heading to camp ," he said.

" Heading to camp ! Are you sure ? "

" Yes," replied Ed.

" Then we'll never see that moose again, Ed ! "

"Why? How?"

" Because I made him out to be heading the other
way, and my shots must have passed in front of him ! "

" Oh, why were you not turned round before he came
in ? He was our moose : that's the meanest thing ever
happened to me in the woods ! "

Well, there was no help for it ; regrets were useless,
and without more talk we retired to rest. I do not
think either of us slept much. With the first dawn
we were in the canoe, and before it was light enough
for proper examination were upon the scene of the

192 HUNTING CAMPS.

fiasco. It is enough to say that we found all three
bullets in a pine tree.

So much for misfortune. I have described these two
incidents with the idea of showing that moose calling
has its difficulties, the chief being the semi or more
than semi darkness in which the shot is taken. Fre-
quently the animal must be fired at when two or three
hundred yards away, as he so rarely answers the call
until after the gloaming, when every instant makes the
light less favourable, and to shoot the moment the bull
appears is very important and necessary.

Perhaps it was disappointments of this kind that
originally suggested jacking, by which trick a moose
can be shot on the darkest night. Yet I am not sure
that success in big-game shooting, in retrospect, is so
interesting as occasional failure. Finality kills imagina-
tion, and it is ever the finest head whose horns we
never measure.

Imagine now a beautiful afternoon in another late
October. On the right runs an historic river, on the
left scattered patches of pine and juniper dot a tawny
ridge, the leaves are turning, for Kabibonokka had

" Painted all the leaves with scarlet,
Stained the leaves with red and yellow."

Accompanied by Ed, I was walking down a faint trail
which led, for about a mile, beside the high banks of
the river. We had walked some fifteen miles, and far
behind us followed a buck-board waggon with our effects
and canoe loaded upon it. The buck-board was in
charge of a small Frenchman ; now and then his voice,
as he argued with or urged forward his horse, faintly
reached us. It was our intention to push on as deep

Head of Moose shot Oct., 1908.

Elk shot Elstad Ground, Sept., 1905.

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 193

into the country as possible, for which reason we carried
the canoe. Only an hour before I had loaded my rifle
on the off-chance of a shot. The day was unfavourable,
as a light cat-ice covered the pools and our advance
could be heard.

We had arrived at a point where the trail led right
over a high bluff before leaving the river. The country
was fairly open, so that we were both keeping a good
look-out. As we descended the bluff I saw something
move behind a thick bunch of spruce about a hundred
yards ahead. The next moment a pair of huge horns
and the large head of a bull moose were thrust into
sight. I saw at once that if he turned he would be lost
to us, as the growth in that direction was close. He
had evidently been taking a siesta behind the spruces,
and had been awakened by the sound of our approaching
steps grinding upon the thin ice.

The moment my rifle covered him I pressed the
trigger and heard the bullet strike. The great animal
sprang forward across the trail, which was for all the
world like a ride in an English park, receiving a second
shot as he did so. He disappeared, and I turned to
run to the height of the knoll in order to command the
river. There was no need for this, as in another
moment I made out the bull just as he was in the act
of falling. We ran up. He was not dead, and indeed
got to his feet and attempted to charge, an effort which
was cut short by a last shot in the chest. TVe stood
beside the dead giant and admired the fine palmated
horns, which carried twenty-two points and spread fifty-
two inches. To our surprise we found a third horn
growing from the centre of the forehead, but it had
unfortunately been broken off earlier in the season, so

H.C. o

194 HUNTING CAMPS.

that only a stump remained. The brows were very
good indeed and the shovels cupped and broad.

Presently the Frenchman and the waggon put in an
appearance. He was greatly surprised, and vociferated
a great deal concerning "Vorignal magnifique" That
night we camped beside the moose and, before we slept
upon his hide, thoroughly discussed my amazing good
luck, the extent of which we only realised later when
hunting caribou over the same country in the "first
snow," at which time, during a week's walking, we
saw only two moose-tracks — those of a cow and a calf,
the widow and offspring, perhaps, of the big bull.

Only on one other occasion have I had equal or
greater good fortune, and then a moose was once more
the victim. I was paddling up a river and, owing to a
rain-shower, landed upon a sandy spit under a high
bank. When the rain cleared off, before launching the
canoe again, I thought I might as well climb the bank
and have a look round. On doing so in a very desul-
tory way I at once saw a bull moose standing facing
me about a hundred and fifty yards away. As he had
not seen me I was able to sit down and rest my elbow
upon a stump which lay embedded in the marshy soil,
and so to take a quiet shot, which was effective. But
for the rain I should never have dreamed of landing
from the canoe at this spot.

On another occasion while on a trip we were camped
in a country where both caribou and moose were to be
found. One night on returning to camp a French-
Canadian, who was with me, informed me that he and
his companions had seen a large bull, a cow, and a calf
upon the other side of the lake. As I had returned to
camp by daylight more than an hour before he saw fit

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 195

to tell me of the fact, I fear I was rather sceptical, in
spite of his promising to lead me to the tracks in the
morning — the more so as the night, which had just
fallen, gave promise of snow. The end of the matter
was that at ten o'clock that night the indefatigable Ed
and I, accompanied by our French-Canadian cook,
broke the thin ice on the lake and went off in the canoe
to find the tracks and to verify the story by lantern-
light. It is but fair to say that we did find huge slots,
and spent the next day in following them up. So far
the cook proved himself a man of his word, but in the
matter of the size of the bull's horns he erred strangely.
Perhaps they are bigger now, for they have had time to
grow.

I often wondered at, and often regretted, the pro
hibition which obtains all over America against the use
of dogs in moose hunting. I do not mean by this the
use of a pack or of a single loose hound, such as in
Sweden is used to run down and bay the great deer, but
I refer to the harnessed hound of Norway. There, as is
well known, 90 per cent of all the elk killed annually
are killed over dogs. The presence of a hound adds
enormously to the enjoyment of the hunter, and as the
animal is on leash it certainly does not frighten or disturb
the elk or do any damage.

A blank day in America, spent as it must be in
walking over the endless hardwood ridges, is a dull
affair, the more especially as the hunter knows that luck
rather than skill is needed to crown his efforts. But a
blank day in Norway may be full of excitement, for
there the hound is a living barometer, giving warning of
the nearness of the elk, which he can wind at a great
distance, often leading the hunter to a fresh track a mile

o 2

196 HUNTING CAMPS.

off, so that when one knows and understands a dog's
ways dulness is finally driven away. Then there is no
pushing on through interminable forests in a com-
paratively blind fashion, but every step is taken with a
view to the next, and for the hunter who goes alone and
works his own dog the sport is a splendid one indeed.

The difference in horn-growth between the American
moose and the European elk is strikingly great, certainly
greater than the difference in size and weight of the
animals. Anything spreading over forty inches may in
Norway be termed a good head, as is anything over fifty
inches in Canada ; but the number of fifty-inch heads
shot in Canada is far greater in proportion to the total
killed than is that of forty-inch heads to the total killed
in Norway. Yet as far as my own observation goes — to
which I may add the experience of two of my friends—
the hoofs of an elk are, curiously enough, very noticeably
larger than those of the moose.

One point of difference may, 1 think, be fairly
noticed. The American moose seems when wounded
to be far more apt, if not to charge, at least to defend
itself, than is the elk. This, of course, is probably due
to the fact that in the summer months, when the
farmers have their cattle upon the mountains in Nor-
way, the elk must often receive a taint upon the
wind, whereas in Canada only the lumbermen and
an occasional prospector invade, out of season, the
solitude of A Ices americanus.

As to the charging propensities of the moose in
daylight my guide, Edward Atkins, has definite views,
and as he has been in at the death of probably as many
moose as any man of his age, and is, moreover, a very
accurate observer, his evidence is entitled to respect.

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 197

In his experience the tendency of an unwounded moose
to charge is practically negligible, though instances to
the contrary have occurred in his own knowledge.
A wounded or cornered bull will, however, generally
do his utmost to make things uncomfortable for his
pursuer. As an instance in point, my friend Mr. G. M.
Gathorne-Hardy, when hunting in Canada in 1907,
fired at a large bull moose which fell to the shot. As
the animal lay quite still he went towards it, but when
he was within a few yards it rose and made a most
determined charge, which he could hardly have avoided
had he not been able to turn the animal slightly with
a shot in the chest.

Since the discovery of the variety of moose now
known asAlces americanus gigas in the Kenai Peninsular
of Alaska it has become a recognised fact that these
enormous animals exceed in size the moose of Lower
Canada in about the same degree and proportion as
the moose of Lower Canada exceed the elk of Norway.
There is, doubtless, a more than fair sprinkling of
seventy-inch heads in Alaska, though few of these are
probably finer than the grand sixty-six and a half-inch
head shot by Mr. F. C. Selous upon a western spur of
the Rockies in 1904. But from recent statistics it
would appear that the last few years have been very
favourable in the matter of large heads in Eastern
Canada. Among individual specimens may be men-
tioned the sixty-eight inch head shot quite recently in
New Brunswick, and a very fine sixty-three and a half-
inch head which I saw at a taxidermist's in Ottawa.

Mr. Price also shot a moose spreading over sixty-
three inches in 1908 near Rimouski. This head, which
I had the pleasure of examining, was a very fine one.

198 HUNTING CAMPS.

There are many who profess the accomplishment of
moose calling, but when put to the test in the woods
very few are found to be really experts. In Alaska and
the West hunters imitate the grunt of the bull which
he sends through the forest as a challenge to his rivals
in love and war ; but it is rather in the United States,
in Lower Canada, in New Brunswick, Quebec, and
Ontario, that calling reaUy becomes an art ; for in
these latter places the hunter usually imitates, not the
short, harsh grunt of the bull, but the three long-drawn,
modulated caUs by which the cow moose makes known
her whereabouts to her mate.

During his many seasons of calling Ed Atkins has
naturally had one or two strange experiences. Once,
for instance, he received no fewer than four separate
answers to a call ; and on another occasion, when calling
at one of the home camps of his uncle — the well-known
Will Atkins, of Maine — a bull was coming in satis-
factorily when the large dinner-bell tolled in the hotel
some miles away, a sound which effectually turned the
moose back.

Calling is no longer much carried on in Maine, where
the season for moose does not open till the 15th of
October, so that the pick of the Maine guides go to
practise their art in New Brunswick, where moose are
plentiful and where the season opens on the 15th of
September. About this date moose usually begin to
answer, and for about a month a bull can be called in by
any one who is skilful enough to produce an adequate
imitation of the cow's voice. In some seasons the bulls
answer much earlier, as was the case in 1908, when Ed
called in a good bull on Lake Edward on the evening of
the 2nd of September. The horns of this animal were

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 199

still in velvet. Generally if the calling season begins
early it ends early, lasting in all about a month to five
weeks. In 1906, when we were calling on the south
side of the St. Lawrence, our last bull came in on the
21st of October, but there is much more difficulty in
bringing them in so late in the season.

The call of the cow moose is said to consist of three
distinct notes, long dwelt on, with a pause of about a
minute between each. It is a curious fact that, although
I have been fortunate enough to hear cows call on
many occasions, I can remember only one on which
the three accepted calls were given. This was at Lac
Pino after dark. On the other hand, one evening in
1908 a cow moose suddenly called about a mile away.
I immediately travelled in the direction of the sound,
and when I was quite near, certainly within a quarter
of a mile, the cow called seventeen times almost without
a pause. I gradually approached within a hundred
yards of the cow, who by this time had been joined
by a bull, and at this lesser distance found her calls
resolved themselves into a harsh, throaty roar, ending in
a prolonged moan. Though not loud, the sound seemed
absolutely to vibrate through the air, and on a still
night (and no other is of much use for calling) would
travel for miles. To reproduce this bellow from a
human throat is, as I have said, not a readily-acquired
attainment, and in Maine the counterfeit call must
be given to perfection, for the moose of that region
are cautious. Indeed, the sense of hearing in the
moose is extraordinarily developed ; the large palmated
horns seem to act as sounding-boards, and the least
irregularity hi the call, instead of beguiling the
bull, sets every animal within hearing on the gut

200 HUNTING CAMPS.

vive with as much certainty as the echoes of a human
song.

It is a strange fact that calling is not attempted in
Norway, for there also, though they are more silent,
the cows do most undoubtedly call during the rutting
season. The Norwegians have named the sound lokke-
tone, and my friend Mr. A. C. Gathorne-Hardy heard
a cow call repeatedly one evening when he was hunting
in the North Trondhjem district.

There is one further point upon which nothing too
strong can, it appears to me, be written or said. All
over Eastern Canada, at any rate, the taxidermists and
furriers sell moose heads at prices ranging from £20 to
£50. For my own fifty-two-inch head a taxidermist
who did not know to whom it belonged offered $200
"in the raw." Those who buy heads in this fashion
are generally rich parvenus or so-called sportsmen, who,
having started for the woods with the same publicity
which pervades their lives, do not relish returning to
their native towns without a trophy. What manner of
man it can be who is thus content to buy and to lie is a
difficult question. Certainly on all counts, as one of
my hunters said, " He don't deserve no consideration,
though his dollars is sound money to us." If such
persons must buy, one would imagine they would at
least only buy full-grown heads ; but as a matter of fact
this is not the case, for in some parts of both the States
and of Canada even a two-year-old bull is worth £20.
" Anything with a head-skin to it," as Ed remarked in
wholesome disgust.

It would appear to be an extreme step if the exposure
for sale of sporting trophies should be forbidden by law,
save to museums. Yet the result would be admirable

MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 201

in every way, and would almost certainly do more for
the preservation of big game than the appointment and
up-keep of any number of new forest wardens. Nor do
1 suppose that there is any hunter of note or skill who
would not support such a measure by all means in his
power.

Take, for instance, the case of the moose — for it is
the moose which suffers most at the hands of the
trophy buyers — surely he deserves better treatment in
this respect than he receives. As far as extinction is
concerned he has nothing to fear from the bond fide
hunter, but he has all to fear from the wandering and
masterless men who invade the woods. Such would
turn everything that lives into dollars. You will even
hear such a man say " I lost $50 to-day through them
bad cartridges," which means that he wounded, but
did not get, a four-year-old moose.

If a law were brought in and passed forbidding under
heavy penalties the sale or exposure for sale of all horns
of moose or caribou, the promoters of such legislation
would be called blessed, not only by all true sportsmen
of to-day, but very much more by the coining genera-
tion. Such a law would, as a matter of fact, be a far
more effective measure than the extension of the close
time to mid-October, which obtains in some States and
provinces in order to prevent calling. But calling will
not do much harm to the moose for two sound reasons
— one of which is the lack of good callers and the other
is that after the first wreek the master bull of a district
rarely answers the call. It is generally one of the less
successful candidates for that honour, and the killing of
such to a moderate extent is not an unmixed evil. Of
eight bulls called in 1906 upon the ground I hunted

202 HUNTING CAMPS.

two, both spanning over fifty inches, were shot, and all
were, as far as could be seen, warrantable beasts.

The killing of moose after a date when the snow is
really deep should also be absolutely prohibited. Canada
has done great things for her big game during the last
decades ; it is to be hoped that she will not pause now,
but will continue on her course and carry the wisdom
which she has exercised in her woods into the shops of
her towns, so that soon her moose and caribou will no
longer bear on their antlers a price that means a sentence
of death from any wandering rifle.

CHAPTER VIII.

A SEPTEMBER TRIP UP THE GANDER, NEWFOUNDLAND.

HAVING already made two October, or second season,
hunting- trips to Newfoundland, I determined in 1906
to spend the early or September season in that country,
for caribou hunting in September is carried out under
entirely different conditions from those which obtain
later in the year. In October all the hunter's efforts
are directed towards intersecting the line of migration
of the herds, which are then moving south ; whereas
during the earlier month migration has hardly begun,
and the chance of sport lies in finding and hunting
" summering " stags, that is, stags that have spent the
summer in defined districts, generally in the near neigh-
bourhood of some river or lake. A stag, while growing
his horns, seems to remain within the limits of a com-
paratively small area, from which he does not move
until he goes out to meet the does late in September,
or more generally hi October. Stags invariably rub in
their favourite summer haunts. The horns of the best
stags are generally free of velvet by the 7th of Sep-
tember, or even earlier. Trees torn and broken by
rubbing are to be seen occasionally during the last days
of August, but hi an ordinary year the bulk of the stags
seem to rub between the 5th and 12th of the following
month. This applies to the country lying south of the
railway.

The shooting of good stags in September is, in many

204 HUNTING CAMPS.

ways, a much more difficult matter than it becomes
later on. The method of hunting is naturally altered
to suit the circumstances. The first step is to locate
a shootable beast, then to watch and wait for his
appearance, for at this period the stags usually pass the
day in the thickets, only wandering out of their shelter
by chance, or to bask in the sun, or to drink. Next, a
caribou in thick timber is by no means so easy a quarry
as he frequently proves after he takes to the open.
And, lastly, the conditions of woodland hunting often
leave but a very brief instant for judging of the head
and shooting. Besides, it is obvious that the hunter's
opportunities will probably fall far short, as far as
numbers go, of the chances in October, when the deer
are collected together about and upon the line of
migration.

Having made up my mind to try a September trip, I
left England early in August, as I wished to have some
fishing before the commencement of the shooting season,
for which my friend A. C. Gathorne-Hardy had agreed
to join me. Only three years had elapsed since my first
visit to Newfoundland, but on reaching my old ground
of Terra Nova Lake I found evidences of a great
change. In 1903 the influx of "sports" had been
insignificant ; in 1906 it had increased, though even
then it had not attained to anything like its present
magnitude. The " opening up " of Newfoundland came
suddenly and swiftly, and was aided by an enterprising
native taxidermist who had then begun to organise,
and I believe still continues to organise, little armies of
sportsmen at $200 a head, all found !

On my former visit when I travelled up the Terra
Nova Lake I had had the country to myself, but in

Launching the Canoes.

A- C. Gathorne-Hardy's Camp on the Gander. Sept. 22, 1906,

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 205

August, 1906, while camped with my mother on
Woody Island by the Narrows, which form the high-
road to the interior, I saw, with regretful yet not
altogether selfish eyes, five parties of "sports" pass
away into my old hunting-ground.

At the time I made my camp upon Woody Island 1
had not come to any decision as to where I should
hunt in September ; whether to pay a second visit to
the Terra Nova country with the intention of pene-
trating to further regions than I had hitherto reached,
or to try my luck on the Gander River, which was new
ground to me. Hardy, who was to be my companion,
had left the choice in my hands, and after I had seen
five boatloads of these boisterous voyagers hauling
away out of sight over the grey-green lake, the trouble
of making up my mind on that head no longer bothered
me : I unhesitatingly made choice of the Gander
River.

Thus it came to pass that, on a pouring wet morning,
the 4th of September, Hardy and I turned out of the
train at Glen wood, the station near the Gander Lake.
All things considered, there can be few more dejected-
looking spots in the world than Glenwood. Its few
thin-chested wooden houses stand dolefully alongside
the metals ; a lumber mill and some sheds make an
untidy background ; the earth is covered with splinters
of wood and sodden with sawdust ; through the valley,
which is spanned by a trestle bridge, the Gander roEs
in quick water over a stony bed. The romance of its
name, Glenwood, has nothing to do with fact ; even the
beauty of the woods is absent, for fire and axe have
devastated them, and the place, standing exposed to
the wind, is both bleak and cold.

206 HUNTING CAMPS.

Presently we discovered that Jack Wells and his
comrades Bob Saunders and Ned Sweetapple, having
arrived the previous night, had set up a tent on the
lake edge to await our coming. Moreover, the men
had " packed " all our outfit to this spot, as it was close
to the wooden wharf from which the steamer owned
by the Newfoundland Timber Company starts. Mr.
Crowe, the manager, had kindly given us permission to
make use of this steamer. Owing, however, to the
arrival of a large consignment of logs from Gambo and
a consequent pressure of work upon the employes
there had been some delay in the preparations and we did
not start until eleven o'clock. Just as we untied from
the wharf, Reuben Lewis, the chief of the Micmac
Indians, appeared and asked us to take him with us as
far as the lake head. This we were delighted to do,
and on the way had some very interesting talk with
him. He was accompanied by his nephew, a lad of ten
or twelve, and had come down to Glenwood to sell
deer-meat, leaving his sister, Soulis Ann, in a teepee at
the upper end of the lake.

This Reuben Lewis has been for some years the chief
of the Newfoundland Micmacs, a branch of the Nova
Scotian tribe. He is an intelligent man, but insignifi-
cant-looking in person, and has at one time been
severely mauled by a bear. His people have parcelled
out the Newfoundland interior into hunting-grounds for
themselves. Thus, Joe Jeddore hunts Middle Ridge ;
Stephen Bernard the Mount Sylvester district ; Reuben
Lewis, Kagudek ; and so on. During the spring and
summer they are to be found more or less regularly in
the Conn River settlement on the south coast. In
August they travel up into the burnt timber, and

X

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 207

throughout the winter each man patrols his trapping-
ground. They number hi all some one hundred and
fifty souls. The duties of Reuben Lewis appear, for
the most part, to be thoseof an arbitrator, and should
any dispute arise he gives judgment upon it, and that
judgment is accepted and takes full effect.

The Indians do not greatly incommode the hunter
who wants to shoot good heads, as up to very recent
years they have not been in the habit of shooting for
any object but that of procuring meat. But the good
prices that are now offered for trophies will, I fear,
spell the death warrant of many a fine stag. It must
be remembered that the Indian, unlike the sportsman
with a licence limit of three heads, does not consider
himself bound by the game laws of the country, but
shoots as many as he likes. The unfortunate result of
this in the long run need not be pointed out.

A good deal of nonsense is talked in connection with
this subject as to the inherent right of the Indian to
shoot deer without being bound by any game-law
limitations, as are sportsmen who come for pleasure or
settlers who hunt for meat. But the game laws are
framed in the interests of future generations, and if
impartially enforced would actually tend more to the
advantage of the Indians than of any other class of
the community.

The policy of many of those who make the game
laws in our colonies, in America, or indeed all the world
over, has always seemed to me to be extraordinarily
short-sighted. Take Newfoundland as an example.
The number of caribou allowed under the licence to
each sportsman is three ; to each settler five deer in
every year ; but this law imposes small restriction on

208 HUNTING CAMPS.

the settlers in the country and practically none upon
the Indians, who act as if it did not exist. As to the
settlers, when a man has shot his own five he goes on to
shoot for his friends, and if either Indian or settler sees
a stag with a fine head he shoots it for its horns, not to
keep, but to sell.

As I have said in a previous chapter the only possible
way even to partially stop this wholesale slaughter
would be to forbid the private sale or exposure for sale
of trophies in shops. This should be the first aim of
any code of game laws, the more especially as the
demand for trophies is becoming greater and greater
every year. Nor would it bear hardly upon the
settler or the Indian, for little enough of the ultimate
price falls to their share ; the bulk goes to fill the
capacious pockets of the middlemen taxidermists,
and until these facts are taken into account by the
framers of game laws there will be no real game
protection.

How can there be, when every stag with a good head
is shot down ? It will be contended that this is precisely
what the sportsman does. True, but the number he
can kill is closely limited, and he shoots according to
certain rules — the rules of the game. He is the man
who brings not only money into the country, but know-
ledge, and also a very real, if to some extent a selfish,
interest in the maintenance of wild animal life. Yet it
is practically always against him that modern game laws
are directed, instead of against the pot-hunter. The
latter is the man whose works live after him. He has
already devastated more than one country. Antlers
and hide mean so much money to him, no more ;
the extinction of a species is no cause of regret to him

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 209

— his concern lies solely with the dollars. But he has a
vote, and so the politicians pamper him.

The game laws of Newfoundland are as sound as
those of any country I have visited. They do not per-
mit the guides to shoot when accompanying a sports-
man, though of course at other times each guide has
his right, as a citizen, to kill five deer. This is an
excellent regulation, for when the sportsman has shot
his three heads he can kill no more, and may as well
leave the country. In other circumstances he might
buy from his men their right to shoot the five each to
which they are entitled, and a certain number of sports-
men would undoubtedly do so — an evasion of the law
which could only lead to bad results. If Newfoundland
would but add an absolute prohibition, under a heavy
penalty, of the sale or exposure for sale of the trophy of
any indigenous wild animal, her game laws would be as
nearly perfect as one can expect such laws to be.
Perhaps, however, they might be altered in one other
point. A £10 licence permits the foreigner or visiting
sportsman to shoot three stags. This places the person
who goes up to Howley and in two days shoots that
number of prickets as the deer cross the line on their
migration on the same footing with the man who
spends six weeks in the interior looking for three fine
heads. If, instead of this, the law allowed a stag for
every week spent hunting, the law would be more just
and fewer stags be unworthily slain. Incidentally the
country would benefit, as the hunter who goes into the
interior spends, say, £100 as against the £10 note of the
railway sportsman.

To return to our start in the steamer from Glenwood.
After proceeding about three-quarters of a mile down

H.C. p

210 HUNTING CAMPS.

the lake we put in to land and took up a load of fuel,
which did not occupy many minutes, we and our men
working with the steamer crew. Only the Indian chief
held himself aloof. As the wood was brought aboard
it was stowed below by one of the Timber Company's
men, and in the midst of the loading a log was thrown
down which struck this poor fellow on the head. As
the log was a heavy one, the least we expected was to
find that he had got a nasty knock-out blow, but to
every one's surprise, after a dazed moment and a little
king's English, he began to work again.

The Gander Lake is a fine stretch of water, wooded
to its borders and shaped something like a star-fish, of
which one great arm runs up towards Benton. We
left this to the south-east, and about three o'clock
disembarked at the lake head. We brought off the
canoes and the outfit and loaded for our start up the
river, only waiting to make a fire for a cup of tea before
setting out to take advantage of the small amount of
daylight left. While the men were busy Hardy and I
paid a visit to the Indian teepee. We photographed
Reuben and the teepee ; then, being introduced to
Soulis Ann, we begged for the honour of taking her
likeness also. She was by no means unwilling, but,
alas ! insisted on arraying herself in a black tight-
waisted store-dress, which, had she but known it, was
far from an improvement upon her more picturesque
every-day attire.

We promised the Indians copies of the photos, and
entertained them at a meal of bread, cheese, and tea,
after which we bade them good-bye, and distributing
ourselves in the canoes, one nineteen-foot and two
sixteen-foot, we paddled away.

Micmac Wigwam near Cooper's Brook.

The Chief of the Micmacs.

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 211

For the next five days we rowed against a very
heavy stream, for in the September of 1906 the river
was at least a couple of feet higher than is usual at that
season. There were two or three small rapids, but
nothing to give us much trouble, until we reached
Rolling Falls, where a portage became necessary.
Here, in the soft sand, we found the trail of a party of
four hunters who had left Glenwood the previous week.
Their presence ahead of course destroyed our chance of
seeing many deer, as by the tracks it seemed that two
of the party always walked along the bank, and even
days' old footsteps serve to turn any deer that cross
them. Indeed, for many days we saw but one caribou,
a doe, which appeared as we were passing the shores of
Birchy Island.

Bob Saunders alone of our party had any knowledge
of the Gander. He told us that on his previous trips
up the river stags were almost always to be found, their
haunts being on the sandy shores and on the sand
banks in the river-bed. But now, owing to the height
of the water, there was no sand to be seen anywhere,
and our only chance lay in coming upon a stag actually
crossing the stream. The volume of water drew from
Saunders one of his characteristic remarks : " If this be
the tail of the Gander, I wonder what it'll be like
when we comes to the beel of he ! "

He was a cheery old fellow, never disheartened and
full of quaint talk. His system of therapeutics was
queer and simple, but perhaps not to be recommended
for general use. For instance, as a boy, when not
feeling very well he was, he told us, in the habit
of dosing himself with gunpowder. When gently
admonished, he assured those in authority that they

p 2

212 HUNTING CAMPS.

were quite mistaken as to the possibly dangerous
results, as it made him well very quickly. This may
have been so. At least he did not die.

After some three days spent in struggling against the
fast dark current, we reached the neighbourhood of
Cooper's Brook, where we found another Indian teepee
— this time empty — and a little further up a birch-bark
letter in a cleft stick, from one Nicolas Jeddore, a
Micmac, stating to whomsoever it might concern that
he came from Conn River, and having travelled east to
Child's Pond and Baby Lake was now on his way back
to Conn River again. The Indians often leave such
letters, set up in prominent positions, for the information
of their friends and comrades.

Up to this time we had seen no open country, the
woods growing thickly to the very water's edge ; but
as we approached Migwell's Brook the banks began to
show signs of change. At the outlet to the Brook we
caught three good ounaniche, the only fish caught on
the whole trip.

After this followed a period of rather dull toil. The
rival party was still ahead of us, and at the most likely
spots for game on the bank we were sure to find the
inevitable and irritating traces of their boots. Some-
times the track of a stag was near by, but the signs
showed that in most cases the deer had turned back
into the woods. Reuben Lewis had told us of a spot
which he said was one of the best crossing-places for
caribou on the river, or, in fact, in the island. This
place was Serpentine Hill, a cliff some two or three
hundred feet high, bare of trees and covered with
asbestos. From Migwell's Brook we had to work up-
river by wading ; at noon we grounded our canoes

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 213

under the cliff, and leaving Ned Sweetapple to prepare
a meal the rest of us climbed the peak to have a look
round.

The prospect was most satisfactory. We were at
last clearly in good deer country. We could see for
four or five miles, and the low woods were broken by
outcrops of hard mossy barrens, such as the caribou love
to haunt. That was on the north of the Gander. On
the south the country was still more open, stretching
away for thirty miles to the rocky wall of Middle Ridge.

In the afternoon Hardy and Bob Saunders took the
south bank, while I, with Jack Wells, hunted the
line of ridges to the north. We saw seventeen deer,
but not one warrantable stag until we were back in
camp. It was growing dark when, about six hundred
yards up-stream, a beautiful stag appeared, and accom-
panied by two does began to cross the river. I seized
my rifle, and getting under cover of a line of rocks com-
menced running towards the stag, but before I had got
far I slipped among the wet stones and came heavily
down upon my knee-cap. When I was able to hobble
along again, the stag had vanished. The light and
distance made it hard to judge of this stag at all
accurately, but I managed to get one good look with
the telescope, and I was certain that he had an excellent
and rather curiously-shaped pair of bays.

It is this fact of the sudden appearance of a stag
which makes September hunting rather more difficult,
and certainly more interesting. As the animals emerge
from the thickets, or as one catches sight of them
through the trees, it needs instant decision as to
whether the head is what you want to shoot, and, after
that, quick shooting. Caribou antlers are not easily

214 HUNTING CAMPS.

judged, as they look very different from different points
of view. To be misled into shooting a poor head is one
of those mistakes for which a man can never quite
forgive himself.

As an instance of the deceptive impression one may
gain, I remember a stag which I disturbed from a
drogue of spruces, and which I thought showed the
best horns, and with the greatest width between them,
that I had ever come across. I fired at once, before the
stag disappeared, but on reaching the trail found no trace
of blood, even after following for some distance. I was
certain that I had badly missed the chance of a lifetime.
I made up my mind that the antlers carried at least
forty points, and measured forty inches from tip to tip
inside the tops — a very head of heads 1 Following the
tracks for another two hundred yards, in the wild hope
that the stag might stop and look back, I came upon
him lying quite dead in a little marshy hollow. The
stag, it is true, was an enormous animal as to his body,
but he was old, and the horns were not what once they
had been. They numbered, indeed, but twenty-five
points, while the span was thirty-seven inches — a
warrantable and rather curious head, but no more.
Yet if that stag had happened to get away my imagina-
tion would always have given Mm forty points, and an
undying regret. Undying regret is hardly too strong
an expression. In my own small experience I have
found that the only cure for such a loss is to obtain an
indubitably better head. That, occasionally, more or
less removes the sting. This confession may leave the
hunter open to the charge of lacking the sense of pro-
portion. To miss or to kill any single animal is, after
all, a small matter. The hunter recognises this fact in

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 215

the abstract, yet the keener he is and the greater his
experience the more strongly he realises that no game
is worth playing into which a man's whole heart does
not enter.

Hardy on that day saw seven deer, but nothing
worth shooting. During the next fourteen days we
both learnt a very fair amount about September hunt-
ing, but neither of us fired at a stag. The few we
gained sight of were young animals, and not such as we
wanted. During this time we went up-river and
visited our rivals, who had secured four stags, none of
them very remarkable.

Just before arriving at Burnt Hill, near the " beel
of the Gander," in Bob's phrase, we began to pass
through forests that had been destroyed by fire, and in
which the Indians find black bear. To go further was
useless, so we determined to hunt in the beautiful
country that we had seen between Little Gull River
and MigwelTs Brook. To this we accordingly returned.

One evening at this time, as we sat by our fire, which
we had made on the bank of the river near Serpentine
Hill, we detected an odour which was certainly more
curious than pleasant, and which we at first attributed
to our sealskin boots that had not been adequately cured.
But after the offending boots had been removed beyond
the sphere of our senses the smell remained in its
original force and seemed to come from the back of the
camp. A short exploration in that quarter showed us
good reason for it. An Indian had camped there some
time in the previous winter. We found his blanket,
rotted with wet, his cup and his knife, and the bones of
a deer. Of the Indian himself no sign remained. He
may have deserted his camp all standing, though such

216 HUNTING CAMPS.

an act would have been at variance with the charac-
teristics of his race ; for an Indian will walk any distance
to recover his goods and chattels. On the other hand,
it is possible that the man died in the camp and that
his kinsmen had removed his body for burial, leaving
his belongings in the place of death, which with many
tribes is held to be accursed. Or he may have fallen
a victim to some accident while hunting and crept away
to the nearest thicket to die in its shelter. However,
all this is mere conjecture, and only one fact is certain
— that anything more lonesome than that deserted
camp, with its few poor rotting or rusty implements
beside the ashes of the camp fire, can scarcely be
imagined.

We had now been nineteen days without firing a
shot, and, with the exception of the stag which crossed
the river by Serpentine Hill, without seeing a really
fine specimen, so it became necessary to hold a council
of war. We decided to split into two parties, Jack and
I going into camp near Little Gull River, while Hardy
and the two other men " guarded the higher passes of
the stream."

When we had packed Jack's outfit and mine into the
small canoe I sent the former to paddle down, while I
started to walk along the bank of the river. Hardy
accompanied me for a part of the way, and we had
hardly turned the first bend when I went over the bank
to examine a deer road that showed some fresh tracks.
As I returned I heard Jack whistle softly. He was in
mid -stream pointing down-river, and there, just beyond
the bend and hidden from Hardy by an outcrop of
boulders, a large stag was in the act of entering the
water from the further side of the river. The instant

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 217

he knew that I too had seen the stag Jack paddled
into cover. Hardy, also catching sight of the stag,
crouched among the rocks.

The stag stood for a moment on the bank. Hardy
looked round, and I, knowing the head was a fine one,
was glad to see him raise his rifle for what was a longish
shot, a little over two hundred and fifty yards. The
first bullet hit, and at the second the stag rushed
forward into the river hock-high, splashing the water over
his back in a grand rush, and within fifty yards fell dead.

Jack now thrust out into view, waving his paddle, and
we ran down the bank until we were opposite the spot
where the dead animal lay. Then Hardy, eager to
examine the horns of his first caribou, without waiting
for the canoe, waded into the stream, which here was
about a hundred and fifty yards across. There was no
mistake at all about the horns of the stag, which carried
a most beautiful palmated head of thirty-three points.
Indeed, but for the fact that one brow antler was
represented by a spike, the head would lose little by
comparison with the best.

We now hoped that the luck had at last turned, for
we had begun to fear we might be obliged to finish the
season empty-handed, as neither of us wished to kill the
poorly-grown heads which we had hitherto seen. That
year of 1906 was a less than average good year for
horns in Newfoundland. Occasional bad seasons are no
doubt the result of a severe and late spring, during
which the lack of proper food affects the horn growth
in its early stages. Thus 1904 and 1905 were very
lean years, and 1906 not much better ; but in 1907, and
more especially in 1908, the milder weather caused the
stags to grow magnificent antlers.

218 HUNTING CAMPS.

After this Jack and I went on our way, and finally
set up our camp about half a mile above Little Gull
River. We chose a spot peculiarly suited for September
hunting, putting up our lean-to in a little thicket on a
promontory, from which we had a view of the river-bed
both east and west. On the further bank a continuous
wood of spruce and birch extended for miles, while
behind us lay great expanses of young timber inter-
spersed with marshes and barrens. Out of the birch-wood
opposite several deer-roads descended to the water's
edge, among them some veritable highways, but, as
there was no sign of migration, only the few stags that
had summered in the vicinity were travelling them.

The same night, as we were lighting our fire, a young
stag of about twenty points walked quietly out of the
birches and began to cross the river, but in mid-stream
caught the wind of our fire and at once turned and
rushed back into the woods. On the following morning
we were up at dawn and hunted all day in the direction
of Red Indian Lake, but our eyes were gladdened by
nothing more exciting than the sight of a couple of does.
About four o'clock in the afternoon we climbed up a
high hummocky barren, surrounded by thick woods, and
sat in the warm sunshine smoking our pipes in, it must
be owned, a very depressed state of mind. Our eyes
ached with staring through the glasses at every patch of
grey or white among the green, yellow, and crimson
network made by the woods and mosses.

As evening began to fall I came to the conclusion
that the river by our camp would give us a better
chance, so we set out on our return, and, contrary to our
custom, conversed as we walked. Jack was in the lowest
of low spirits, and suggested gloomily that the stags had

ON THE GANDER RIVER, 219

all " gone on the Labrador " ! This keen fellow's one
fault is that he grows dejected unless he is constantly
seeing game. I tried to comfort him by saying that
our luck would probably come as Hardy's had, but
he only shook his head. We walked on in silence,
following a deer-path that wound over the sandy ridge
and in and out of the little groups of spruces and jumpers.
Then Jack began, " I wonder if Mr. Hardy— But he

got no further, for there was a crash in the thicket below
us, and a large yellow stag dashed out of it. We were
at the moment high above him, upon the slope of a
barren. From that angle his horns seemed very wide-
spread, palmated and heavy in beam, and curiously like
those of a certain type of Norwegian elk.

Feeling pretty sure the head was such a one as I
wanted, I fired just as the stag disappeared among the
trees. It was a snap shot, and I was sure I had missed
him. I said as much to Jack as we ran forward, and
he agreed. We pushed through the drogue of trees
after him, and emerging from them we saw a deep
valley full of spruces and flanked by a low hillside, but
nowhere a trace of the deer. Then a stick cracked, and
the stag burst out of the spruces on the opposing ridge
nearly four hundred yards away. I managed to fire all
the shots in the magazine before he reached cover.
" Under him ! Under him ! " said Jack ; but this
time I did not think so, for I imagined the caribou
had staggered. And so it turned out, for presently we
came upon blood splashed on the trees and mosses.
Another hundred yards was covered with much caution ;
then we saw there was no more need of caution, for at
the foot of a little hummock the stag was lying quite
dead, with three shots in him, while the fourth had hit

220 HUNTING CAMPS.

his horn. As I had taken the one hundred yards sight,
both the white and black of it, the fact that I had found
the range was one of the luckiest of chances. The head,
too, pleased me very much, for though not a handsome
one, as the stag was past his prime, its curious shape and
its weight made it valuable. Above all, both of us felt
that the long run of blank days was at last broken.

While we were skinning out the head and cutting up
the meat a heavy cloud spread over the sky, and a cold
and rainy wind blew up through the trees. Evidently
we were in for a thunder-shower, and such are often
particularly severe in Newfoundland. We therefore
hurried the work and were soon on our way to camp.
I was leading, but I found myself every now and then
looking back with deep satisfaction at the head and
horns that Jack was carrying on his shoulders. We
arrived just as the storm burst. In descriptions storms
almost always break with " a rattle and a roar." In
this case it actually did so. First came a blast of wind,
tearing off branches and uprooting dead trees ; the blast
was followed by deluges of rain and hail. We hurried
in beneath our lean-to and tried to start a fire, but the
attempt was useless. In the event our failure proved
fortunate, for, believing that the fury of the storm and
the stinging of the hailstones would probably move any
stag that happened to be in an exposed situation, I left
Jack struggling with the match-box and walked out to
the edge of the thicket with my rifle.

The hailstones were pelting into the river like bullets,
beating up little spurts of water, and it was not possible
to see more than a few yards. At length, by degrees,
the hail ceased, or rather turned to a soft rain, and the
long vista of the river came into view. One glance

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 221

down that vista was enough, for there in the middle
distance, about three hundred yards away, a big stag
was just crossing. I have seen many caribou, but none
in so beautiful an environment. The water did not
reach beyond his hocks, and he was splashing through
it at a stately walk. Against the almost absolutely
black background of the dark water and dripping
woods his huge white mane showed up splendidly, and
splendidly the shadowy form of his mighty antlers.

He was coming from the further bank to my side of
the river. I crept forward, keeping as much in cover
as I could, but, finding the weed -grown, water- worn
rocks too slippery, I lay down behind a boulder and got
my focus with the glass. The stag was still in the
river, but now rapidly nearing the bank. As soon as I
had him in the field of vision I was sure that I had seen
the stag before. The formation of the bays was very
distinctive, as were the hooked points on the tops. It
was undoubtedly the same stag I had been pursuing
when I fell a fortnight earlier. I could have shot at
him in the water, and it would have been quite a fair
shot, as he had by then reached the shallows, but there
is a law in Newfoundland against the shooting of deer
in the water. It is, moreover, an excellent law, as it
prevents the killing of caribou when swimming across
the great lakes, for at such times they could easily be
overtaken by canoes and their backs broken with an axe,
even if they are not shot at close range, for the caribou
is a good swimmer and will readily cross a lake four or
five miles broad. When swimming they show the
whole of the back, and the little scut-like tail sticks up
straight. Their extraordinary buoyancy is said to be
due to the fact that the hairs of their coats are hollow ;

222 HUNTING CAMPS.

at any rate, it is the material that is now beginning to be
used for stuffing life-belts. However, although the law
against shooting caribou in the water can hardly apply
to a stag walking through shallows that barely cover
his hoofs, yet it is well to pay respect to a law in letter
as in spirit.

I waited till the stag had nearly climbed to the top
of the bank, and in consequence I very nearly lost him,
for he took the crest with a rush ; but just as he topped
it a bullet brought him down. He made a dash to
re-cross, but fell dead upon a little island of coarse
grass. Jack immediately appeared in strong excite-
ment, calling out that he had heard the fall of the deer.
Our canoe was quickly launched, and we were soon
beside its body. I was now convinced that this was
the same animal I had seen a fortnight earlier ; there
was no mistaking the long, even bays. Besides, the
spot where I killed it was scarcely more than half a
mile from the place where I originally saw it. The
bays measured thirteen and a half inches in length of
palmation.

After gralloching the stag we left it otherwise
untouched in order to photograph it on the morrow,
and returned to camp, where we spent one of the
cheeriest evenings I can remember, in spite of the
dismal weather, the wet ground, and the sputtering
fire.

It was while we were at this camp that an Indian
appeared, travelling down the bank of the river from
the west. After a few minutes' conversation he went
on his way, only, however, to return again, this time
carrying a caribou head of thirty-one points, which he
said he had killed earlier in the year and hidden in a

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 223

bush near by. He wished, of course, to sell me the
horns, offering them for $5, and he did not at all
understand my refusal to buy them at that or any
other price.

"But," he said, "have you not come here into the
middle of Newfoundland to shoot stags ? " I tried to
make him understand that that was precisely why I
would not buy, as the horns of a stag which he had
shot were of no value to me. The young Indian was
silent for a time. " Still," said he at last, " no one
would ever know you did not shoot this stag yourself."
I pointed out that one person, at any rate, would know,
however hard I tried to deceive him, and that he
happened to be a person of some importance to me.
"Your guide?" suggested the Indian. After I had
explained that I meant myself, he stared at me stolidly
for a minute, then said he would take the horns to
Glenwood and sell them at the railway there. He
wound up by asking me if I had shot any stags. My
stags were hidden under a spruce at the back of the
camp. I showed them to him, and, after he had
examined them, asked him if he would buy any of
them, as some were larger than the one he carried. " I
can shoot a stag whenever I want one," he answered,
rather gruffly. At last, by way of changing the con-
versation, I invited him to have a cup of tea. But
he refused, and slinging the horns on his shoulders
repeated that he could dispose of them at Glenwood,
and so, with a surly grunt, walked off out of sight.

We remained in our fortunate camp near the Little
Gull River for a couple more days, but during that
time saw nothing save one small stag. On the third
day Hardy and his men rejoined us. They had met

224 HUNTING CAMPS.

with no luck, and we all agreed that, caribou being so
few and far between by the river, we should be well
advised to change our ground to the height of land in
thedirection of Red Indian Lake.

Red Indian Lake is a large sheet of water, one of
the largest in the island, and at one time its shores
used to be visited by great numbers of caribou. Of
recent times, however, the extension of the lumber
business and Lord Northcliffe's timber works have
driven the line of migration further to the west.

In the previous year Mr. F. C. Selous had travelled
in far beyond Red Indian Lake to George IV.'s Pond,
a region only once previously visited by a white man,
and had told me of the large number of deer which he
had seen there. As the crow flies, or, as in Newfound-
land one might say, as the wild goose flies, this big,
untouched country lay over a hundred miles to the
west, but between us and Red Indian Lake spread an
immense expanse which, up to that time, had remained
almost, if not quite, untried. This was the district
that we now made up our minds to travel — a decision
the more easily arrived at since we were all a little
tired of the conditions under which we had hunted of
late, the endless watching and waiting, which is so
characteristic of September sport in a region of fairly
thick woodland.

Loaded with our small necessaries we set out early
and walked steadily all day. As we approached the
height of land, the country changed in character and
became more and more open. Large marshes spread
on every side, only broken by little clumps of timber.
Of deer we saw but small sign ; their broad roads were,
it is true, cut deep in the face of the marshes, and the

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 225

highways along which generations of caribou had
wandered wound among the trees, but hardly a recent
track was printed upon them. The weather was exceed-
ingly warm, the black flies a distinct nuisance, and very
obviously the autumn migration had not commenced.
In fact, we learned afterwards that the mass of caribou
did not move south that year until well on in the month
of October, a fact doubtless due to the prolonged fall
and the very hot weather.

But our enthusiasm was to receive a spur, for passing
through a strip of thickly-growing spruce, first one and
then another of our party picked up cast antlers of great
size and weight. These had probably been shed during
many and various seasons, but, even so, the very fact
that w^e found horns of such strong growth, bearing
from twenty-one to twenty-four points each, made us
hopeful of meeting in the flesh the giants that had
formerly carried them.

Towards evening we made our camp in a little drogue
of spruces which formed a landmark for several miles
round, and the next morning, leaving Sweetapple to his
work in the camp, Hardy and Bob and Jack and I set
out in different directions. By evening, on our return,
we had sighted thirty-two does and one stag of about
twenty-five points, while our comrades had seen thirteen
does and a single poor stag.

It must be acknowledged that the time we spent on
the high ground, though exceedingly enjoyable, was
far from successful, only five stags being seen during
our whole stay, two of them on our way back to the
river. Hardy spied the best of these, and generously
insisted that I should go after it. However, I was only
in time to see it dash away while I was still at some

H.C. Q

226 HUNTING CAMPS.

distance, but from the glimpse I had of its horns I think
it would hardly have been worth shooting.

As soon as we reached the river we began to hunt in
different directions, and on the third day Hardy killed
a pretty head. One afternoon, having left our men in
camp, Hardy and I walked to the look-out near which
I had shot my first stag. It was a very hot afternoon,
the woods filled with a summer-like stillness. We
were lying half asleep, and keeping a very desultory
watch upon the country, when along a little bare ridge
about half a mile away a big stag with an enormous
brow antler walked into view and lay quietly down on
the highest part of the hillock. The wind was blowing
straight from the stag to us, and soon our two tele-
scopes had taken stock of him and we were comparing
notes. We agreed that he was worth shooting. Between
us and the stag, however, the trees grew very thickly,
and the hummock on which he was lying was one of
many, so that once we had descended from the look-
out it would have been difficult to locate him had it
not been for a single gaunt pine, long dead, which
towered above the level of the forest about equally
distant from us and from him, and this, we hoped,
would act as a landmark. Towards it we made our
way, but the woodland was so dense that we soon lost
sight of it, and so, in addition to the caution necessary
to prevent the noise of our passage reaching and alarm-
ing the stag, we could catch sight of nothing to give us
our bearings, until I imagined I recognised the guiding
pine. But unluckily I was mistaken, and consequently
we came out of the timber nearly two hundred yards
too far to the west.

Even then no harm need have been done, as the wind

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 227

was still in our favour, but on coming in sight of the
spot where we had seen the animal we found him gone,
his tracks proving that he had walked off at his leisure
along the spine of the ridge. We followed him for a
short distance until the timber became too thick ; then,
feeling very crestfallen — for he certainly was a fine stag
—we took our way back to the camp. Indeed, as I
thought the matter over during the night, the desire to
add that stag to my collection became so keen that in
the morning, when Hardy proposed to hunt the country
in another direction, I returned to the look-out, spent
the whole day on it, and — saw nothing at all.

But I would not give up my determination, for I had
an idea that the chances of ultimately securing the
animal were quite hopeful. He was evidently summering
in the thickets, probably within a mile radius of the
little broken barren upon which he had appeared. To
attempt to follow him up in the wood was useless. The
drought had made the floor of the forest like a sounding-
board ; so closely did the trees grow together that it was
difficult to see a dozen yards in any direction. Yet,
sooner or later, I knew the big stag must show himself
in the open, as he certainly had not been frightened.
My only fear was that he might come across my tracks,
in which case he would be almost sure to travel away
from the neighbourhood, for, as I have said before,
caribou are very easily alarmed through the sense of
smell.

A second day spent upon the look-out produced no
result, though a young stag, the same, so far as I could
judge, I had previously seen fording the river, passed
within sixty yards. On the third day, after again
spending a couple of hours on the look-out, Jack and I

Q 2

228 HUNTING CAMPS.

moved across to a lower hillock, some three-quarters of
a mile to the east. We had not been there ten minutes
before Jack saw something stirring in the woods, and a
moment or two later a stag appeared, feeding slowly
along at the foot of a hummock nearly a mile away.
He was gone out of sight before we could focus him
with the telescope, but his large size and branching
antlers led me to believe that he was the very animal
I had set my he art on finding.

When I stalked him fortune stood my friend, for we
came upon his tracks before we again saw him, and,
following them very cautiously for eighty or a hundred
yards, presently got a view of the stag, his head hidden
behind a bush. When he raised his antlers above the
thicket I rejoiced, for he was the same stag, and no
other. It was impossible to mistake the enormous
solid brow, but I now perceived that the second brow
was represented by a little single spike. Still, the
horns were so wide and set at such a fine angle that I
felt no hesitation about killing him. I shot him through
the heart, at about eighty yards, and he sprang forward
down the hill and fell dead at the bottom of it.

We were very pleased that our long waiting had
issued in success, for to hunt a stag is always more sport
than to hunt stags, since to locate and track a particular
animal affords greater scope for plan and stratagem.

The season was by this time drawing to a close. Hardy
had shot two stags and I three, but as the Newfound-
land Government had kindly given me permission to
shoot extra specimens for natural history purposes, I
intended to exercise my right if by luck I saw a very
good stag, but not otherwise. Towards the end Hardy
and I hunted together, and some very memorable, though

Robert Saunders, Doyen of Newfoundland Guides.

Head of 36-point Caribou shot by A. C. Gathorne-Hardy near the Gander

River, Sept., 1906.

ON THE GANDER RIVER. 229

unsuccessful, days we spent up and down the whole
range of the Gander country, from the Burnt Woods
to MigwelTs Brook and Rolling Falls.

We were returning to camp one day, having spent a
part of the afternoon within a few yards of a young stag
which Hardy had photographed, when passing round
the edge of a clump of trees I started at close quarters
a fine stag with a heavy pair of antlers. Hardy had left
me a few moments before to look over a marsh ; there-
fore, though it was his shot, I had no choice but to shoot
at once, as the stag was evidently about to dash away.
I put up my rifle and pulled the trigger, with the result
of a misfire. The stag, of course, made off at full speed,
but I threw out the bad cartridge and got in a second
shot, which brought the animal down. I then looked
round and found that Hardy, walking silently over the
deep moss, had rejoined me, having seen nothing on the
marsh. When my rifle missed fire, he covered the
running stag with his rifle, but gave me time to re-load
and shoot, an action which tells its own story.

This stag carried the best head that I secured during
the trip. The next day was the very last day of the
season, and on it Hardy came into his own, shooting
at sunset, many miles away from camp, a magnificent
stag of thirty-six points, by far the finest we either of
us secured. Some day, I hope, the hunter to whom it
belongs will tell the almost epic story of its slaying, at
sunset on the last day of the season.

The following morning we travelled down the river,
and so by canoe and accommodation train drifted back
into the duller channels of ordinary life.

CHAPTER IX.

CARIBOU-HUNTING IN TIMBER AND BRULEE.

FRESH from the barrens and open marshes of New-
foundland, I must acknowledge that the features of
the country where I first hunted in Lower Canada
came upon me in the nature of a surprise and a dis-
appointment. It was a region of dense forest-land—
thick timber, green timber, spruce, pine, balsam, maple —
so close-grown that an average pace of about a mile
to a mile and a half an hour was the most one could
hope for, and through which the view rarely extended
for a hundred yards in any direction. Even the shores
of the beautiful lakes were wooded to within ten feet
of the water.

At the outset it seemed that in so blind a country,
success or failure must be a matter of good or ill
fortune. Silent moccasins and straight powder alone
must fail (even if one attained the momentary posses-
sion of both), without that " beginner's luck " which so
often places the novice on a plane with his betters.
However, caribou were certainly somewhere in that
tangle of trees, deadfalls and moss, and it remained
but to try and find them.

The determination to hunt the woodland caribou of
Lower Canada first came upon me in the shop of a
taxidermist, whither we had made a pilgrimage to
examine some moose trophies, and where I saw speci-
mens of New Brunswick and Quebec caribou. There

IN TIMBER AND BRtTLfiE. 231

is undoubtedly to the initiated eye a peculiar charm in
observing and comparing the modifications of horn
growth peculiar to different localities. The caribou of
the Eastern mainland is a large greyish-brown animal,
and while it cannot — though larger in body — rival its
Newfoundland cousin in grace and the number of points
it carries on its antlers, it yet seems to present a strong
individuality of type. One of the heads which I then
saw appeared to me very characteristic. The horns, set
close together — the spread being only twenty -five inches
— were yet exceedingly massive, and, growing as they
did almost straight upwards, without much backward
curve, presented a most striking appearance. This,
added to the reflection which inevitably occurs to all
hunters, that doubtless there are finer heads in the
woods than are usually brought out of them, made
me eager to gain a first-hand experience of the large
grey deer.

Edward Atkins, the Maine hunter and moose-
caller who accompanied me, had at that time never
seen a warrantable caribou stag, and his one desire
seemed to be to lose the least possible time in doing
so. The upshot was that, five days after our visit to
the taxidermist, we had left a good many miles of
road, lake and forest-path behind us, and were camped
in the neighbourhood of Lac des Neiges.

Part of our journey had been made in company with
a buck-board, while we walked ahead between the
living walls of bush which formed the border-line of
our hunting-ground, and where, here and there at long
intervals, a soft dell might show us the track of deer
that had ventured into the outer marches. In this
connection a disastrous experience fell in the same year

232 HUNTING CAMPS.

to the lot of a friend who, after spending ten blank
days in the woods without sight of game, was driving
out along the road when he came suddenly within
shot of a band of caribou, including five stags — this
when the rifles were put away and the cartridges
reposing in the packs ! One of the men, however, had
a -303, which he thrust into my friend's hand. The
cartridge misfired and jammed. Time itself cannot
obliterate the sear of such an episode, which, indeed,
has since compelled my friend to carry his rifle along
some hundreds of miles of toteroad and bushpath, but
without ever again coming face to face with such an
opportunity.

One of our halts on the way we made at a small
wooden house raised upon piles, in the fly-blown living
room of which a kindly, twinkling old lady, bent nearly
double with age, gave us, at a small cost, one of the
most perfect meals I have ever tasted. The house
belonged to one of the small farmers, who cultivate
little clearings beside the forest-track. These people
have an excellent life ; they fulfil the dream of George
Borrow, who saw himself in imagination, assisted by an
enormous progeny, felling the trees and tilh'ng the soil
in the virgin woods of America. As a rule, in the case
of the French-Canadian, there is no mistake about the
progeny. Formerly, I believe, the State bestowed a
bounty upon parents whose offspring exceeded the
round dozen, but this has been discontinued. The
French-Canadians are extraordinarily prolific, and in
this connection I can remember arriving at a house and
being offered, with a friend, the hospitality of the
family bed, which, unless some of the family accepted
the alternative of the stable, had already seven claimants.

IN TIMBER AND BRULEE. 233

The French- Canadian family, which lives in or upon
the skirts of the woodland, invariably possesses one or
more guns, generally muzzle-loaders of the kind that
cost from £l to 28s. in our money, and without which
no member of the household above the height of four
feet or so ever seems to move far from the door. The
result is that the ruffed and Canada grouse which
haunt the edges of the bush roads, and which these folk
always shoot sitting, are being sadly thinned. Nearer
to the cities the Sunday sportsman considers all that
flies or is in any way eatable as fair quarry, the bird
locally known as a " robin " being regarded in the light
of a prize.

Recently some speculative individual has introduced
five thousand Swiss rifles into the province of Quebec
alone. These weapons, which carry a very killing cart-
ridge, are retailed at about $3.50 apiece, and at this
not exorbitant price the original stock of five thousand
has been nearly sold out ; so that, although it is to be
doubted whether the majority of the purchasers will
ever push far afield, it yet is certain that any person
walking in the "bush" near a village will be well
advised for the future to proclaim his presence by
whistling, or song, or in some other definitely human
manner. Should he fail to do so, the consequences may
easily be disastrous, as the temptation to try his rifle
on any creature that moves in the woods may prove
irresistible to the local pot-hunter, especially as a moose
very occasionally, and whitetail almost habitually, wander
about the isolated dwellings of man.

A first trip in any country is invariably fertile in the
gaining of experience, and even more so in the paying
for it — a truth which we realised some days later when,

234 HUNTING CAMPS.

having searched over a good many acres of ridge and
marsh, we failed to find any more material sign of
caribou than was afforded by a rare track, and once,
in a thicket of spruce, a single tree stripped of its bark
and branches some seven weeks previously by a stag
cleaning the velvet from his horns.

For the rest, the woods were not wanting in occasional
squirrels, ruffed grouse, called in Canada the hardwood
partridge, the Canadian grouse, which also owns the
local name of spruce partridge, porcupines, and hares.
Yet for the most part the Canadian woods are silent,
so silent that on a still day you may sit for an hour at
a time without hearing or seeing sign of life. One
animal only is omnipresent — you come across its work
many times a day — the beaver. For some considerable
time past in the province in which we were hunting,
beaver have enjoyed complete protection, and up to a
date that is still some years ahead no beaver pelts may
legally be sold. This law is, of course, occasionally
evaded, and here and there a family of beaver is
destroyed, their skins hidden or carried out of the
country, rolled in the centre of a pack, to be offered at
half their value to some not too scrupulous fur-trader.
In the country through which we were travelling, how-
ever, no such poaching had taken place, with the result
that each stream was damned, pools spread upon the
tracks, and every other alder swamp carried a full
head of water. Although there appeared to be a super-
abundance of beaver, one rarely saw the animals them-
selves, but their houses, and the trees, often of astonishing
girth, which they had felled, lay in every direction.
Sometimes just after sunset, when the musk-rats were
out, you caught sight of a beaver or two on their way

IN TIMBER AND BRUL&E. 235

to their nightly tasks. More frequently, returning late
in the canoe along the shore of some lake, you might
hear two or three reports, like miniature pistol shots,
as the creatures, surprised by the gliding craft, dived
with a splash of their immense flat tails.

Having up to this time had no experience with
caribou except in Newfoundland, it was difficult to
allow at once for the different conditions now to be
encountered. Most of our hunting led us into woods
where, in Newfoundland, one would never look for
caribou, but would endeavour to pass through them
as quickly as might be, in the hope of finding barrens
or open ground above. But here all the high ground
was densely wooded, and caribou -hunting for the first
week resolved itself into the watching of marshes, none
of which were more than a mile in extent, and all of
which gathered around the inlet and outlets of a chain
of lakes. After spending some fruitless days at this
dull foim of sport, I decided to leave the marshes, upon
which most of the caribou which had been killed in
recent years were obtained, and to strike out to the
north-west of Snow Lake, where I was informed the
country became more open, until forest merged into
br&lee (the district having been devastated of forest by
fire years before), especially in the neighbourhood of the
lake of that name.

The end of October was approaching ; we had been
hunting and travelling for some little time without
having sighted a caribou of any kind. The weather had
turned cold, so cold that once or twice, when crossing
one or other of the little lakes, we had been glad enough
to light a fire upon the shores at which to warm our-
selves. It was a cold year, as is proved by the fact that

236 HUNTING CAMPS.

two seasons later, within no great distance of the same
place, we were persecuted by black flies up to the 15th
of the same month.

On a dull day, with a persistent wind and little showers
of snow, we portaged across, and set our canoe upon the
waters of Lac Bruise. We had been informed that there
was a camp at some distance along the shore, but before
visiting this the whole party, which now consisted of
two French-Canadians, Ed and myself, paddled up
to the head of the lake, to see whether any caribou
might be visible there, or whether we could detect any
sign of their recent presence. As soon as we came in
full view of the strip of marsh at the lake-head, Ed, sitting
in the bow of the canoe, saw a couple of brown objects
within a few feet of the water's edge, and I made them
out with the glass to be caribou. The wind, fortunately,
was in our favour, but the clamorous rising of a number
of black duck put the deer on the qui vive. Both
immediately ran off among the dead trees. The canoe
ceased moving, and watching the deer through my glass,
I saw them walk down out of the undergrowth to the
open strip by the water. At once we noiselessly paddled
the canoe in their direction, and when we once more
came in full sight of them, they were not much more
than two hundred yards away. One was a stag, carrying,
as far as I could judge, a head of twelve or fourteen
points. I had no wish to shoot such an animal, and
finding that Edward was of the same mind, was about
to give the order to turn and leave them in peace, when
the cook intervened. To him a caribou was a caribou ;
the question as to whether it was a good or a bad caribou
depended entirely upon its fatness, and in a lesser degree
upon the accessibility of the spot where it might be shot.

IN TIMBER AND BRtlLfiE. 237

Having asked and received leave, the cook picked up
Ed's rifle and fired at the young stag. The first
shot evidently did not hit him, for after pausing for a
moment he went off among the trees, at the peculiar
mile-eating gait of his kind, his motions being accelerated
by three more shots, one of which struck the water in
his very close proximity.

The next day, having at last arrived at our chosen
hunting ground, we were astir before the dawn. Hitherto
travelling had occupied a large portion of our time, for
the river up which we had just journeyed had not been
traversed by canoe before ; at least, we could gather no
rumour of its having been done, and where the stream
narrowed, a number of deadfalls made it clear that no
one had passed that way for, at any rate, a number of
years.

We carried the canoe down to the water before it was
light, as there had been a strong frost and the lake was
frozen over almost its whole extent. It therefore took
us some time to make our way across to the point where
the caribou had been observed upon the previous evening.
At length the sun rose from a white bank of cloud,
giving enough light to make clear some of the features
of the landscape. It was very satisfactory to see that at
last we had left behind us the seemingly endless green
timber, through which progress had been so slow. Now,
at last, it looked not only as if the country might hold
caribou, but as if one would be able to see them were
they there.

The head of the lake was fed by a sluggish stream
which rolled through a wild and marshy valley, the
heights on either side being clothed with grey phantom
woods of dead trees that had suffered years before from

238 HUNTING CAMPS.

fire, and now rimmed in parts about the lower escarp-
ments with young birch.

Leaving the canoe at the lake-head, we pressed for-
ward. The whole valley was covered with sign of caribou,
most of it, unfortunately, over a month old. Had I been
in Newfoundland, I should have concluded that ten or
a dozen animals had been summering in the thickets and
the alder-swamps. More than once we cut the yester-
day's trail of two animals, doubtless those which had so
nearly fallen to the prowess of the cook.

All the morning we walked from height to height,
and from vantage-ground to vantage-ground, carefully
examining the wide expanses which stretched beneath
us. The country was beautifully open, and we saw
many horns which had been cast in previous years.
These were nearly perfect, not much chewed or nibbled,
as would have been the case with similar specimens in
Newfoundland. But of living caribou we failed to catch
the remotest glimpse. To make a long story short, we
travelled to our hearts' content, finding at least an
exhilaration in rapid movement, which we should hardly
have believed possible had we not recently spent
wearisome days watching the empty marshes about
the Lac Des Neiges.

The morning and the afternoon were eventless, except
for one brief moment when, as we neared the summit
of a high hill which we had ascended to reconnoitre
the lie of the country, we came upon a pair of cock
grouse drumming among the dead trees. As it was
unlikely at the altitude we had attained that the noise
of a shot could do any harm, we decapitated both, and
they formed a very welcome addition to our larder.

When hunting in the Canadian woods one often falls in

IN TIMBER AND BRtlLEE. 239

with a covey of these birds. The best weapon is a little
•22 taking the short cartridge, with which it is generally
possible to secure all the birds one wants without in
any way alarming the country. Both kinds of " part-
ridge" are ordinarily tame, so much so that at times
it is easy to capture them with a long pole and a wire
noose, yet at other times they become curiously wide-
awake ; indeed, I have frequently known them on one
day to take no notice of approaching footsteps, while
on the day directly following they will hardly allow
you within shot. The reason for this has probably
something to do with the weather, but what con-
ditions affect them I have not sufficient experience
to say.

Climbing over the hill-top, we changed our water-
shed, and so the day passed almost without incident until
late in the evening, when within a mile of camp we
picked up the trail of a little band of caribou, which
must certainly have passed us unseen earlier in the day.
The trail headed towards the lake and disappeared into
a large thicket of spruce and alder close to the water.
Our chance seemed to have come at last, and, advancing
cautiously, we had already, without knowing it, come
within eighty yards of the deer, while we had still a
quarter of an hour of shooting light left. We paused
several times to ensure ourselves against error, and in
fact heard the animals feeding and moving, when, to
my disgust, our two Frenchmen suddenly appeared in
the canoe and began breaking the ice close to the
farther shore. They were more than a mile away, but
their voices carried with appalling distinctness through
the quiet evening, and in another instant there was the
sound of a stampede, and, running forward, we found

240 HUNTING CAMPS.

ourselves staring at the slots of the little band of caribou
which a minute before had been almost at our mercy.

One of them, as far as we could judge, was a stag ;
whether his horns would have satisfied either of us it
was impossible to say. Very likely not, yet we walked
back to camp without any stirring of forgiveness in
our minds towards the over-energetic cook and his
companion.

It may be said that failure is the salt of sport, but salt
alone makes a poor meal, and luck at this period really
seemed to have deserted us. Search as we might, we
saw no more caribou until, coming reluctantly to the
conclusion that these most elusive animals had moved
on elsewhere, I began to turn my eyes towards England,
where it was absolutely necessary that I should arrive
by a certain date. Owing to carelessness I had been
under the impression that the steamer by which I
meant to travel started on a Saturday, which would
leave me just enough time to make my way out from
Lac Bruise by forced marches. The particular piece of
country through which we had to pass was unknown
to any of us, so that when I suddenly, through the
medium of an old newspaper, discovered that my steamer
left on the Friday afternoon, we lost no time in breaking
camp, and by two o'clock set out to strike the nearest
trail to civilisation. The first part of our way led us
along a portage through a belt of green wood, the very
portage upon which the Frenchmen were working when
their return to camp proved so disastrous to our hopes.

About four o'clock, when it was rapidly growing
dusk, Ed, who was leading along the side of the
knoll, suddenly threw down his pack and pointed across
the valley. " A caribou stag, and a good head on him.

IN TIMBER AND BRtlLfiE. 241

I saw the top half of his horn as he moved," he said.
The place indicated was about three-quarters of a
mile away. Telling the Frenchmen to set down the
canoe and to wait for us until either we returned or
they heard a shot, we ran down the hill and along a
narrow savanne in the direction of the caribou. It is
wonderful the pulsing of the blood and the vigour that
the knowledge of game in sight can bring. Speaking
for myself, I know that a moment before I had been
wearily tired, and it was not the loss of my pack's
weight that renewed me, but that eagerness which only
comes to a hunter when, after days of failure, he sees
a chance of retrieving his fortunes at the eleventh hour.

As I said, we ran down the slope and along the
savanne at a pace much too great for steady shooting ;
but the light was fading, and the caribou on his feet,
consequently he might wander away anywhere among
the clumps and bushes, so that speed was quite in the
essence of our undertaking. After we had covered
half a mile, we found, to our disgust, that a river lay
between us and the caribou. Its edges were frozen,
and no more than a dark stream flowed in the middle,
but luckily we struck it at a point where the water
was not very deep. It was, however, exceedingly cold,
and the current quite strong enough as it swirled to
our armpits, but we soon broke through the ice and
were climbing the bank upon the farther side. Here
we found ourselves in what must have been either one
large marsh dotted with trees, or a series of little ones.
Edward made for a point which should bring us within
fifty yards of the spot where he had seen the caribou,
but when we arrived there the stag had disappeared.
As we were not certain in which direction he was

H.C. B

242 HUNTING CAMPS.

travelling, the only thing to be done was to take our
chance of picking up his tracks.

This we did with as little delay as possible, and
finding that they led across the wind, circled a little to
the left and, passing by a couple of clumps of balsam
and juniper, we perceived ahead of us a large fallen tree,
and beyond the fallen tree the caribou stag lying down
in the open, at a distance of about one hundred and
fifty yards. We saw him, and he gained some hint of
our presence at almost exactly the same instant. He
sprang to his feet as I dropped on my knee and fired
through a gap in the roots of the dead tree. I
heard the bullet tell, and the caribou staggered ; but,
running round to get a clear view, I saw he was still
on his feet, so I fired again, when the animal fell.

He had been standing broadside on, with the head
slightly turned, when I fired the first shot, which I
afterwards found had hit him in the neck. When he
dashed forward my attention had been fixed upon
making sure of him, so that, beyond the first glance
which showed me that his left horn was well developed,
I had given no more thought to his head. As he
fell we both ran up. He lay upon his right side, quite
dead. Ed seized his horn to turn him over, and
then for the first time we became aware that the right
antler was missing, though the left was still quite firm.

As the date was the 1st of November it was unlucky
that he had dropped his horn, though occasionally it
happens that caribou, and especially the larger stags,
lose their antlers by this date. This is, however, a
matter both of individual and seasonal variation, as in
most years these Canadian deer retain their horns as
late as the 20th and even the 25th of the month,

[Drawint/ by Lady Helen Gruhuin.

" Built a large fire . . . round which we crouched till dawn."

IN TIMBER AND BRtlLEE. 243

though by that time it is probable that the really fine
heads, which are always the first to become clean of
velvet, have fallen. Of course in the present instance
we were bitterly disappointed, but there was no help
for it, and the trophy would at least serve as a memory
of the trip.

Having skinned the stag, we once again crossed the
river and continued our journey. It was almost dark
when we struck the waters of the river, and as we had
been informed that we should meet with no quick
water on our homeward journey, we concluded that we
might safely push on after dark. As a matter of fact,
until half-past ten that night we continued to strike
rapid after rapid, several of which, in the obscurity,
necessitated wading, so that it was an uncommonly
chilly party which finally built a large fire upon the
bank, round which we crouched till dawn. As the
night had been very still and cold, it was no surprise to
us in the morning to find the still water, which now
became more frequent, frozen to a depth of some
inches. The ice was too thick to break, so we were
forced to cache the canoe and pursue our journey on
foot. It had previously been arranged that a buck-
board should be in waiting at a spot where a permanent
camp was pitched, some thirty miles closer to our
hunting-ground than the nearest village. Between six
and seven hours' walking along open hillsides brought
us to the tent, about which we found a number of men,
among them our driver, who, it appeared, had met
with an accident and damaged his eye in an altercation
with a compatriot. We ate a hasty meal, after which
the driver, who seemed to be a somewhat surly indivi-
dual, informed me that he had no intention of taking

R 2

244 HUNTING CAMPS.

the road, and it was close upon three o'clock before I
overcame his reluctance.

Leaving my French-Canadians behind at the camp,
Ed and I set out in the buck-board, and as, with
the exception of the time we had spent by the fire
during the night, we had been continuously on our
feet for twenty-eight hours, we were extremely glad of
the lift. Our comfort was, alas ! of very short dura-
tion, for we had not made more than four miles when
one of the off-side wheels became jammed among the
rocks and broke to pieces, and had to be replaced by a
green sapling. While the repairs were being executed,
Ed and I spied four ruffed grouse, three of which
we shot.

When we set out again with the crippled buck-board
we found ourselves still twenty-one miles from the
nearest house, to be reached in the dark over an
exceedingly rough forest-road, continually cut by water-
courses, over which pine-log bridges had been thrown
some fifteen years previously, but most of these had
been destroyed by time and weather to the extent of
becoming an obstruction rather than a help. Our food,
too, had given out, and had it not been for a meal
from a barrel of pickled pork which we found in a
disused logging hut, we could hardly have succeeded
in accomplishing the distance in time. It was nearly
2 a.m. when at length the seemingly endless road
wound into a clearing, from which the sound of cattle
feeding was one of the most welcome we had ever
heard.

Refreshed by food we pushed forward, leaving the
buck-board to follow, and by four o'clock the same after-
noon I was aboard my steamer. As I bade Edward

The Buckboard in Difficulties

IN TIMBER AND BRtlLfcE. 245

farewell, we agreed that, as it was obviously impossible
to accept defeat, we would do our best to retrieve our
failures in the following September.

This plan, as well as a mortifying sense of my late
ill-success, was much in my mind during the inter-
vening months ; but Vhomme propose, and the September
trip was ultimately made impossible owing to an invita-
tion to play cricket in Philadelphia and Canada. As
the dates of our matches covered the whole of the month
of September, it was not until the 6th of October that
Edward and I once more found ourselves on the road
for the arena of our return match with the caribou.
This time fortune had been our friend, and, thanks to
the kind help of Mr. F. W. Ross, I had received per-
mission to hunt over a new country. My only regret
was that Mr. Ross was not able to accompany me, as he
had originally intended.

Our journey was marred by one of those irritating occur-
rences of which a hunter over-eager to reach his hunt-
ing-ground is apt to become the victim. I imprudently
hired a " rig " and its driver, who happened also to be
the owner of the vehicle, without bargaining as to price,
as the man had recently worked for some friends at the
usual tariff. Hence it was that, early on the road, I was
faced with the ultimatum, " Either you give me fiftee
dollars, or I take your baggage no furder," a state of
affairs hard to bear without temptation to resort to a
course which, besides being unlawful, may well be un-
dignified, especially as in the present instance the carter
possessed the four feet eleven physique of a Mousqueton.
However, we finally slept upon our differences, and the
following morning my suggestion that we should make
an immediate start was acted on without argument. At

246 HUNTING CAMPS.

the end of the trip the matter, of course, cropped up
again, and I was a good deal overcharged, but not to the
extent of the first impudent demand for fifty dollars.

We met with many delays on the road, all occasioned
by Mousqueton's horse, which not only kicked a hole in
our canoe, but later overturned the buck-board and its
load, and finally conceived so strong a dislike to its owner
and its duties as to necessitate our packing every pound
of our outfit along the last miles of our way. However,
everything has an end, and Edward and I at last pitched
our camp on a hillside above a small and, I believe,
nameless river. Mousqueton departed to resume, as we
heard afterwards, his differences with his steed, had the
worst of it, and in the end was forced to abandon his
buck-board and to return the thirty miles whence he
came on foot.

Meantime, on the 10th of October, Ed and I had
everything " straightened away to rights," and by three
o'clock of a beautiful autumn afternoon we set forth to
look over the ground. Chastened by the experiences of
the previous year, neither of us hoped for any immediate
success, but we were resolved to offer an unsparing
sacrifice of time and trouble at the shrine of the Wood
Gods.

As we walked on that afternoon the country looked
likely, but so had the country round about Lac Bruise
when we visited it in the previous season. Our way to
the north-east of our camp led us through a wide valley
shut in to the west by a high ridge of mountains and to
the east by a smaller range. Not far from the centre of
it rose three mounds exceedingly suited for reconnoitring
purposes. The low ground was bruise, and among the
grey barkless trunks which stood or leaned at every

IN TIMBER AND BRtlLEE. 247

conceivable angle, young trees, spruce, juniper, maple
and poplar had grown to a height of some ten or twenty
feet.

It was quite late and the sun had already sunk when
from the top of the first of the woody mounds Ed
spied six caribou. The glass showed us that there was
not a shootable stag among them, which, however, did
not prevent our approaching and watching them while the
light lasted. Then we crept away, leaving them undis-
turbed, and returned to camp, where I fear we slept
little, so eager were we for the coming day ; the up-shot,
of course, being that when morning actually came we
did not awake until the sun struck on a large kettle and
reflected a blinding beam across my eyes. Breakfast
was swallowed in double quick time, and immediately
after it we were on the move through the glorious
upland air. There had been a frost during the night, so
that the sun sparkled upon a thousand thousand points
of crystal light, as though some giant hand had flung a
shower of diamonds across our little portion of the
world. The sky was deep blue ; across the lake a loon
cried ; the air mounted to one's brain ; it was good to be
alive.

Of course, our objective was the First Look-out, as
we named the spot from which we had sighted those
six most inspiring caribou on the previous evening.
We spent a blank hour there, and we walked on from
knoll to knoll without a glimpse of deer, but passing,
nevertheless, a couple of torn and broken trees upon
which big stags had cleaned their horns earlier in the
season. At length we arrived at a point from which the
valley-bottom dropped some hundreds of feet into a
cleft, where it debouched upon another and a deeper

248 HUNTING CAMPS.

valley, through which a dark and slow-moving river
wound its way, lost itself in a reedy dead-water in the
middle distance and, emerging, flowed away to the
north-east.

We stood on the rocky back-bone of the hill, with a
view of a couple of miles, an ideal place for spying, and
soon both glasses were at work. At first the wide vista
seemed tenantless, but after half an hour I saw some-
thing move, found it again with my telescope, and
made out a doe caribou advancing up a savanne about
half a mile away. Seven does soon appeared, following
the first, and then a stag, obviously young ; lastly, the
tops of a pair of large horns slowly rising until the
whole body of the stag was visible. I pointed him out
to Ed, who observed delightedly that he was better
than the one-horned fellow, and " Will we be getting
after him ? " The question needed no answer. We
slipped over the open rock unobserved and commenced
to run down the fissure on the farther side. As we did
so I felt Ed's hand catch my shoulder. " Look there !
there upon the hill ! " he whispered.

I looked, and I do not think I have seen a more
splendid sight. Down the steep slope on the opposite
side no less than eighteen caribou were galloping. At
first I thought something must have frightened them.
But no, evidently they had seen their friends in the
valley and were rushing down to them, or, I should say,
the does were endeavouring to do so, for on the out-
skirts of the herd a great, heavy-bodied stag, whose
horns seemed to touch his flanks, was struggling to
check the revolt of his harem. But no sooner had the
eighteen reached the level ground in the gut of the
valley than the leading doe slowed to a walk. The

IN TIMBER AND BRtlLfiE. 249

revolt was over ; they moved on, and in the neighbour-
hood of a little pool of dark water which lay at the
head of the savanne the whole herd were lost to sight.

We immediately pushed on under the kindly cover
of the ridge, the wind seemingly in our faces, everything
in our favour, and on the best of terms with our hunter-
luck. But this happy state of things was, as usual, of
but short duration. To the north-east lay the bare
hillside, where the eighteen had come upon the scene,
and the ridge under which we were creeping formed, as
we soon discovered, a mere tongue of rock that must be
crossed. As we climbed it I felt that ominous tickling
of the wind, first on one ear, then on the other, and
finally on the back of the neck, which means an eddy.
The herd we had first seen were, or we judged ought
to be, about a hundred yards away over the ridge and
about abreast of our position ; the eighteen which
had descended the hillside at an equal distance straight
ahead of us. If either band were startled both would
in all probability stampede. We therefore scrambled
down from the ridge and began to circumvent its base.
I was sure the deer must have been startled ; but no, in
another twenty yards I caught a glimpse of the white
hind-quarters of a doe, and I saw that her head was down
and that she was feeding. So far good, but the
wind was shifting more and more to the side, and, as it
seemed, must carry the hint of our presence to the herd
we had seen first. No cover was now left to us but the
final knob of the ridge, a bare hummock of reindeer
moss, and at the very moment we attempted to crawl
to it the wretched doe raised her head. We both lay
still and were making up our minds to a long wait
when, to our relief, she fed quietly out of sight.

250 HUNTING CAMPS.

The course was at last clear, so, abandoning without
regret the attitude of the serpent, which is exceedingly
irksome in nine inches of water, we closed in rapidly,
and a few moments found us lying panting against the
soft mossy side of that most grateful hummock. Before
I looked over, I knew that we were near to our quarry ;
the peculiar clicking noise that caribou make with their
hoofs was startlingly distinct, as well as the suck of
their feeding. As I peered over the top of the
hummock my eyes met those of the doe, with no more
than eight paces between us. Her companions were
all round her, and she at once gave the warning half-
cough, half-snort. As they ran off, look as I would, I
could not see the stag. I imagined he might be behind,
but no, there he was at last, not in the marsh by the
pool, as I had expected, but standing apart about forty
yards away to the left. He was startled, but uncertain
in which direction to break, and with his head turned
from me.

He sprang forward as I fired, fled with gigantic
strides across the savanne, and the spruces shut him in.
At the same instant I caught sight of Ed tearing
across to the right, as it seemed, in pursuit of the does.
I ran to the left and immediately overtook the stag.
He had come to a standstill, and was swaying as he
stood. A second shot passed through his heart, and
I was soon beside him, admiring the massive round
horns of a very heavy head.

While thus pleasingly engaged, I heard a shot,
followed by others, and running over the ridges towards
the sound, I soon saw, about three hundred yards off, a
big stag twisting round and round, finally to fall with a
crash among some stones on the top of the hard ground

IN TIMBER AND BRULfcE. 251

on the other side of the savanne. Half-a-dozen does
were galloping wildly round, but they all made off as
Ed came out from among the trees. It appeared that,
as I fired at my stag, he had perceived the second herd
of caribou, and slipping along the ridge, got in a shot at
the master-stag at three hundred yards. The stag, not
knowing where the bullet that struck him came from,
ran in towards Ed, who fired at him again as he
galloped, hitting him twice, and bringing him down.
All the shots were long, and rendered difficult by the
bush through which the stag was moving.

The head had fine tops and bays, and was beautifully
palmated, and of quite a different type to my rugged
specimen. Curiously enough, we each preferred the
other's trophy. This did not, however, prevent our
feeling to the fullest that sense of satisfaction resulting
from success ; which is one of the few joys that has
absolutely no reaction.

In the evening, as we walked back to camp with our
trophies, we saw no less than thirty-two does, but only
a single stag, a small one, which, of course, we left in
peace.

Having made so lucky a start, and having by the
terms of our licence only the right to shoot one more
stag apiece, we now, as was to be expected, at once set
our standard very high, a fact to which a fine stag
which we sighted next day probably owed his continued
lease of life. This stag we spied from the First Look-
out, and we were close enough to him to inspect his
head almost point by point. He was warrantable, but
lame of the off fore-leg, a circumstance that may have
caused his horns to deteriorate, for although he carried
twenty-two or more points, he seemed to be deficient

252 HUNTING CAMPS.

in beam, which would certainly be probable were he
recovering from a wound sustained during the previous
year.

That evening heavy snow fell, and I proceeded to
improve the occasion by losing our only axe. I was
cutting wood, and foolishly struck the axe into a log
before carrying another back to the camp half a mile
away. Being delayed there by some task, it had become
too dark when I returned to find the axe, and by next
morning it was buried under a foot of snow. We
experienced a difficulty in getting our fire started, and
indeed were quite as cold as was comfortable before we
succeeded in making a blaze. By great good fortune
I found the axe after breakfast. The snow, which
overlay the country, was, of course, an open advertise-
ment of the daily and nightly movements of the game
in our neighbourhood, but the results of inspection
were disappointing. A cow and a calf moose, a large
number of doe caribou, and only two sizeable stag-
tracks were all that a hard day's travelling showed us.
Judging by the large number of rubbing-trees, there
must have been many stags in the valley earlier in the
year, and it seemed probable that the summering deer
had taken their departure, in which case our prospects
of further success were poor.

The first snow, which in the case of moose and white-
tail is the hunter's greatest opportunity, is, as regards
caribou, of less aid. It is of course possible, by syste-
matically following caribou tracks, to come up with deer
from time to time, but as a rule, in open country it is
hardly worth the trouble to do this. The reason is that
caribou are such insatiable travellers at this season
when they are migrating that, in eleven instances out of

IN TIMBER AND BRtfLEE. 253

twelve, the hunter gains nothing by tracking them but
a good appetite and an extended knowledge of the
country.

Next day we at first hunted separately, and Ed
saw, but did not shoot at, a young stag of nineteen or
twenty points, while I had to be content with watching
a small herd of nine does. About three in the after-
noon, however, having once more joined forces, we were
shivering in the lee of a rock upon the Second Look-
out, when a stag appeared, moving through the brul&e
at a distance of about a mile and a half. A transient
gleam of sunshine showed up his horns, and after
making a detour to clear the wind, we set about the
business of the stalk. The country in which we had
seen him was tolerably thick, that is, one might pass
within fifty yards of a stag and remain quite unaware
of his presence. As we had a long round to make,
we were lucky to see anything of him again, and in
all probability should not have done so had he not
been accompanied by three does and two fawns, one
of which gave us the line just as we were on the
point of getting to windward of them. As it was,
a doe with her fawn became alarmed, and made off,
followed by the rest The stag, however, happened to
have wandered some two hundred yards away from the
herd, which just enabled me to run across, cut him off,
and fire a bullet which broke his shoulder. He carried
a nice even head of twenty-five points, and had — a very
rare merit in the mainland stags — two moderately
developed brow-antlers.

After the death of this stag good fortune seemed to
desert us, for hunt as we would, either together or singly,
neither of us came upon a shootable beast. But a second

254 HUNTING CAMPS.

fall of snow helped us once more to see what game was
about, and this time our suspicions became certainties,
for the only tracks to be found were those of does, and
all headed in one direction. We consequently decided
to forsake the high ground where we had been so
successful, and to descend to the lower levels.

Upon those more than breezy heights there are few
spots suitable for camping, and as we had but a blanket
apiece, we spent far too many of our nights in a reek
of in-blown wood-smoke. Our eyes suffered quite
severely, Ed being almost smoke-blind at one time,
in view of which it was fortunate that our chances of
shooting came early in the trip. Although I dislike
cold as much as other people, I still more dislike a
stove in the tent, and until absolutely forced by the
weather will have none of it. Even in the chilliest
autumn a lean-to and an open fire are, in my opinion,
far preferable.

That night it turned very cold. Indeed, though com-
paratively early in the season, 17th October, the frost
which then commenced held until the following spring,
so that we had some difficulty in reaching the open
water of the lake. But at length we made our way
through, and set up a snug camp in the green timber.

No sooner were we settled than a gale, accompanied
by heavy snow, began to rise, and the wind blew so
fiercely that it brought us out of our blankets in the
small hours to cut away all overhanging branches and
to lop the surrounding trees. With these we made a
zariba, inside which we were exceedingly comfortable.
From this date we returned to camp each evening with
increasing pleasure, after long and fruitless journeys
through the snow that covered the treacherous windfalls.

IN TIMBER AND BRtTLEE. 255

So day after day passed, until there remained but one
before that on which I had arranged with Mousqueton
—in default of a better man — to come out with his
waggon and another horse, that he described as " good
and confiding," to convoy us back to civilisation. We
determined to make one final effort, although it seemed
that the caribou had migrated some days earlier towards
their winter quarters.

In the morning, however, Ed woke strong in the
belief that the gods would send us adventures, because
he had dreamed a lucky dream. I myself was not with-
out hope, for the last day has proved time after time
lucky for my companions and occasionally for myself,
Sure enough, about eleven o'clock, as we were walking
through a grove of young birch which grew upon a
steep hillside, we cut a broad trail, evidently made by a
band of some twenty caribou. It was clear from the
tracks that they were feeding, and consequently our
hopes became very bright. Amongst a medley of small
slots ran a series of large ones that could only have been
made by a big stag.

After some twenty minutes' tracking, during which
the herd most considerately travelled in a straight line
up-wind, a dozen grey shapes sprang out of the bushes
above us, immediately followed by three more from
some spruces and alders some hundred yards in front.
One of these three was the stag. I do not think
I should have shot at him, for as he made off his horns
looked slight and thin. As it turned out, I should
have been quite wrong in letting him go. However,
Ed, who had a clearer view, saluted him three times
without hesitation. It was not an easy chance, but
following his trail we found blood, and behind the next

256 HUNTING CAMPS.

clump of bush we came again in sight of the wounded
animal, when another shot rolled him down the hillside.

When we examined him he proved much more
worthy of powder and shot than I had imagined, for
he carried a beautiful pair of upstanding horns, showing
twenty-one points, with both tops and bays well
developed. In fact, in some ways, I considered this to
be the best trophy either of us obtained, though all four
were excellent heads, quite above the class that is best
described as warrantable.

It was, as can be imagined, with much rejoicing that
we bore him back to camp, where we arrived about
four o'clock, and two hours later we heard the powerful
voice of Mousqueton hailing us from the darkness
across the river.

The End of the Lake.

The Last Gimp of the Year.

CHAPTER X.

FURTHER DAYS AFTER MAINLAND CARIBOU.

IN the autumn of 1908 I chanced to have the oppor-
tunity of making a third trip after caribou in Eastern
Canada, and, though I had already enjoyed such capital
sport in the two former ones, I found strong induce-
ments to undertake another when my friend Mr. F. W.
Ross asked me to accompany him on a short venture
into the woods. Firstly, I was glad to go with him ;
and my second attraction took the shape of a cast horn
that had been brought in by Mr. Ross some years
previously. In weight and size this one enormous
antler far surpassed any I had ever seen, and although
the length of time which had elapsed since the finding
of the huge horn made it more than probable that the
skull which once carried it lay whitening long since
upon some hillside, yet I could not help hoping the
deer was not a unique specimen, but that others, his
sons and grandsons perhaps, might possibly approach,
if they did not rival, the record of their forefather, for
the country Ross proposed to hunt was situated in
the same district as that in which the mighty antler
had been cast.

Our party consisted of Ross, Dr. Campbell Howard
of Montreal, and myself, together with Ed Atkins and
three French Canadians. With us travelled a couple of
buck-boards to carry our baggage for the first sixty or
seventy miles of our journey. We made the distance

H.C. 8

258 HUNTING CAMPS.

in two days and a half over an execrable road, but its
difficulties brought us the consoling assurance that
travellers upon it must be few and far between. On
the second day the leading horse, a powerful grey, fell
through one of the many rough timber bridges which
occurred at intervals along our route, but by a miracle
it escaped unhurt.

Shortly after this misadventure the whole party was
arrested by the calling of a cow-moose within a mile of
the road. We halted, and everyone listened while the
strange bellowing cry was repeated at the least a dozen
times, and was then, to our great satisfaction, answered
by a bull. As it was yet early in September, and the
rut had consequently only just commenced, the chances
were in favour of the bull being a large one.

Ross and Howard generously insisted that I must
try my luck ; so, accompanied by Ed, I went off in the
direction of the sound. Almost immediately on leaving
the road we found ourselves entangled in a long strip of
alders, but beyond this the forest appeared to thin.
We pushed our way through the alders and, wading a
small brook, took a line at right angles to the road,
when we again heard the cow calling and the bull
answering, but by this time they had moved into some
very thick timber. Here, the wind being in our favour,
we soon got within a hundred yards of the bull, which
continued trampling and grunting. But the growth of
the forest was so dense that it was impossible to see
more than a few yards in any direction, so we were
unable to locate the cow. Had the wind been steady,
or had the bull been alone, we could in all probability
have approached near enough to see him, but after
advancing for another fifty yards we were forced to

FURTHER DAYS. 259

stop and wait. The smell of the bull was quite per-
ceptible even to the human nostrils, but all sounds had
ceased, and it was evident that both animals had become
suspicious and were listening. The silence was broken
by what we imagined to be the movement of the cow,
which had circled round with the manifest intention of
finding out the facts of her surroundings by getting to
windward of us. At this moment we heard the bull
again behind a thick bush within thirty yards, for the
cow must have communicated her alarm to him, and at
once there followed a series of crashes as the couple
decamped. Abandoning all precautions, we ran forward
in the hope of cutting off the moose, but failed to catch
sight of them, as their tracks showed us they had turned
and escaped over a wooded ridge, leaving us to retrace
our footsteps sorrowfully to the road, along which we
followed the buck-boards, reaching camp long after dark.
We were both much disappointed at our failure, the
more especially as, had the moose been in almost any
other part of the forest save the thicket into which they
had wandered, I should almost certainly have got a
shot ; and the matter was made still worse by the fact
that, as far as we could judge by the marks that the bull
in his flight had made with his horns on the trees and
bushes, he must have carried antlers with a very fine
spread.

We marched next day from the Mort, or death of
the waters, where we parted with all the buck-boards
but one, the monotony of the morning being only
broken by the shooting of a few Canada grouse which
we killed with a toy-like *22 rifle. On arriving at the
river where Ed and I had waited for our waggoner the
previous year, we found my old camp tenanted by a

s 2

260 HUNTING CAMPS.

number of Frenchmen who were fishing. Some of
them were, to say the least of it, very heavy men, and I
could not help wondering how their horses had managed
to transport them over the bad road, for, judging by
the fishermen's figures, they certainly looked incapable
of walking very far. They were clothed in a variety of
colours, one wearing a football jersey in broad green
and white stripes. They were a delightfully cheery
party, and had had excellent sport, they told us, catching
trout up to 7 Ibs. in weight.

At this camp we left our last buck-board with the
horse and man belonging to it, and had I only been
able to foresee the experience through which the man—
whom we had named Charlie because of the extra-
ordinary resemblance he bore to a mutual friend — was
shortly to pass, I would very gladly have stayed with
him. Some days after the Frenchmen had taken their
departure, Charlie awoke early one morning, and looking
out from the ruinous log hut which he and the horse
occupied, he saw a very fine bull moose, attracted, as he
opined, by the presence of the horse, walking slowly
across the clearing towards the hut. Charlie appears
for a time to have been interested in the "gros gros
orignal" but later felt puzzled what to do, as the
moose continued to come nearer and nearer, and Charlie
had no weapon but a revolver, though, as he explained
to us afterwards, " If I had had a permission, I
could have killed him with that, he was so close."
The upshot of the incident was tame, for Charlie
frightened the moose away, though he assured us
" had it not fled when I shouted, I should have fired,
even without a permission" Questioned as to the size
of the bull, he repeated, " Gros, gros ! " and his story

260 HUNTING CAMPS.

number of Frenchmen who were fishing. Some of

1 of it, very heavy men, and I

iiow their horses had managed

ad ro;*< judging by

ainly looked incapable

clothed in a variety of

jersey in broad green

Ti . c a delightfully cheery

excellent sport, they told us, catching

it up to. 7 Ibs. in weight.

At this camp we left our last buck-board with the
horse and man belonging to it, and had I only been
able -xperience through which the man—

whom v ie because of the extra-

ordinary jal friend — was

with
•

:d, as he

opined, idng slowly

j.he hut. Charlie appears

for a time e been interested in the "gros gros

>'«/," but later felt puzzled what to do, as the

moose continued to come nearer and nearer, and Charlie

had no weapon but a revolver, though, as he explained

to us afterwards, " If I had had a permission, I

could have killed him with that, he was so c3

The upshot of the incident was tame, for Charlie

tened the moose away, though he assured us

i it not fled when I shouted, I should have fired,

;hout a per.- . ' Questioned as to the size

>>ull, he repeated, " Gros, grosf" and his story

M... >M->.

FURTHER DAYS. 261

was borne out by the tracks of a large moose that Ed
and I found on the other side of the river.

However, we were blind to this impending event as
we bade good-bye to Charlie and made our way up the
river and across the lake, arriving a little before sunset
at my camp of the previous year, from which Ed and I
had shot three caribou. That night we were attacked
by myriads of biting insects, but whether they came out
of the grass on which we lay, or were an importation
we brought with us from the last outlying points of
civilisation, we never knew.

On the following morning it was agreed that Ross,
Ed, and I should hunt the farther part of the ground,
leaving Howard, with Gagnon, on the nearer of the two
look-outs. For the first two hours we saw but little
sign of deer ; then, just before coming to the hill under
which we had shot two stags in 1907, we spied some
does, and soon after Ross and Ed saw a stag. We
took a short circuit for the wind, and then lay down
behind a bush to hold a council of war. As I was
walking behind the others, I had not caught sight of the
stag. I may mention that before starting I had said
that I wished to shoot a stag with big tops, while Ross
had expressed his preference for a symmetrical head and
brows. Having spied the stag with his glass, Ross now
turned to me and told me it had fine tops, and most
unselfishly insisted on my taking the shot. We crawled
a little nearer, and for the first time I gained some view
of the horns. I could only see them very partially
through close intervening bush, as the stag was lying
down.

There were, however, ahead of me, some well-placed
spruces, one of which appeared to be within a hundred

262 HUNTING CAMPS.

yards of the caribou, and to this I accordingly made my
way, and from it achieved a good sight of the tops of
the antlers. They looked magnificent and much finer
than any I had yet seen. As the stag's body was
hidden I rose behind the spruce and, taking a rest
against it, pressed the trigger. The animal was lying
with his head towards me, and at the impact of the
bullet his legs flew up into the air, then came to earth
again and he never moved afterwards. The head carried
twenty- six points, and though one bay was completely
missing, the tops made up for that, and in fact the
antlers were most remarkable.

Ross and Ed were delighted, Ed saying, " That's
the best tops in Canada," which I believe to be
very nearly true, at least as far as that part of Canada is
concerned. Before skinning the head, we all went down
to drink water from a stream that ran under the hill to
our right. I happened to be leading, and we had not
gone a hundred yards before I caught sight of a couple
of does coming over the crest of the ridge ahead. These
were quickly followed by others ; they had been dis-
turbed, no doubt, by the sound of my shot. The does
came running in our direction, and were quite close to
us, though still unconscious of our presence, when a stag
appeared. As he moved across at about a hundred yards
Ross fired, killing him instantly. He proved to have a
nice symmetrical head of twenty-seven points. As the
does fled, they ran almost over the body of the first stag,
which lent them new wings of fear, so that they soon
vanished among the trees.

We were naturally very pleased with such a beginning
to our trip, and after removing the two heads and per-
forming the usual rites, we went on. We had luck with

-

•f.

X

OQ

;
^~

--(.

FURTHER DAYS. 263

us that day, for within a mile we saw another stag on
the side of a hill opposite, about four hundred yards
away. I did not think he had a good head, but Ross
and Ed were of a different opinion, so while I
remained where I was, they followed to make sure.
After about half an hour they returned, having obtained
a much closer look at the stag, which confirmed them in
their estimation of the head, at any rate to the extent
that it showed better horns than the stag already killed
by Ross. But, unluckily, the animal led them into a
strip of green timber, where stalking became very diffi-
cult, and they lost him. I blamed myself for this
disappointment, as, had I not depreciated the head, Ross
might have closed in with and shot the deer when he
first became visible.

Although we hunted the rest of the day we met with
no more stags, and on returning to camp we found that
Howard had had a poor day. He had spent it, accord-
ing to Ed's and my advice, sitting on the top of the
First Look-out, and having seen from that point of
vantage nothing more interesting than an unlimited
quantity of black fly, but not a single deer. In the
evening I went with Ed down to the lake to try a
moose-call, but the wind was so strong that after two
or three calls we abandoned the attempt.

This first successful day seemed to have used up our
share of good fortune, for hunt as we would, neither
Howard nor I saw anything at all, while Ross and
Ed came across a couple of small stags not worth a
bullet.

At the time I was not particularly keen to shoot
another caribou, but wanted very much to fall in with
a moose, and, with this aim in view, I went out alone

264 HUNTING CAMPS.

and spent a good deal of time hunting in the green
timber. One day, when out with Ed, I heard some
shots, and on returning to camp, found that Howard had
killed a splendid stag, with horns that for length and
beauty could scarcely be equalled in that part of the
country. He was hunting with Ross and Gagnon, and
all of them were watching a savanne, when a herd of
upwards of thirty caribou, including no less than five
stags, suddenly came out of the woods. Of the five
stags, two were far superior to the rest, the one which
Howard killed, and another, at which Ross only just
failed to get a shot, and which made off into the dense
woods. This latter had, they told me, a very sym-
metrical head with one brow shovel at least, and very
nicely developed bays and tops. Both described it as
carrying quite as fine a head as the one Howard secured.
With any luck Ross should have had an excellent chance
of shooting this stag, but it was frightened off by the
loud untimely cries of triumph with which their French
attendant hailed the fall of the caribou killed by
Howard.

After this, I went out for two or three days without
gaining a glimpse of any deer, and none of the party
were more fortunate, so that we began to fear that the
big stag which they had seen must have moved off' into
another district. At last, on the 30th of September, Ed
and I, travelling to the furthest point from camp, found
a hillside which was covered with moose-sign, and there
on the following day Ross and Ed saw two moose,
one of which Ross killed, the other Ed wounded
and lost. Ross's moose head showed a spread of forty-
eight inches, and carried a good, even head.

On the 2nd of October I went out alone and spent a day

FURTHER DAYS. 265

so full of incident that it is worth describing at length,
more especially as it is typical of a favourable day in that
region. Snow had fallen during the night, and lay all
over the country to the depth of about six inches.
This made my walks towards the Look-outs and
onwards very interesting, as it was, of course, possible
to see exactly what the movements of the deer had
been since about one o'clock in the morning. Two
large stags had crossed quite near the camp, but as the
rest of the party had arranged to hunt the ground to
which these passed I did not follow them. About a mile
from camp a moose, either a cow or a young bull, had
travelled down from the north and gone on into green
timber. By the time I had been walking for an hour
or so I suddenly saw a big caribou stag moving at a
good pace through the briiUe.

From the direction in which he was travelling there
appeared to be a good chance of cutting him off near a
large maple, the red leaves of which made a beautiful
and easily-distinguished mark in the landscape. I
hurried to this tree, and had not long to wait before the
stag came trotting in a leisurely manner into view and
not more than a hundred yards from me. He had a
good pair of horns, with two very long and well-
developed bays, but both the brows were represented
by mere lengthy spikes, and the tops were practically
destitute of points. I therefore let him pass in peace
and slipped away, crossing the back-trail of the stag,
and made my way to a ridge of low barrens and
hummocks, over which the walking was very bad, as
the snow had drifted into the hollows. Half an hour's
floundering brought me to the open highlands where I
had shot the stag on the first day of hunting, and

266 HUNTING CAMPS.

as there were several tracks crossing and re-crossing
this spot, I sat down in the lee of a spruce out of the
cold wind.

I had hardly been there more than five minutes when
my eye was caught by the brownish-grey form of a doe
caribou heading towards me out of a patch of woodland
lying to the north. She came forward at a good pace,
followed by a second doe, and presently a stag emerged.
At first it seemed the deer would come right up to
where I was waiting, but while still several hundred
yards away the leading doe changed her course and
began to trot rapidly in a direction that within a very
short distance would bring her to leeward. There
was nothing for it but to change my position ; fortu-
nately a deepish gully offered good cover, and I ran
down it for about a quarter of a mile, expecting every
moment to see the deer in full flight. As soon as
I was sure that I had crossed the front of the advancing
caribou and was safely to windward of them, I crept
out of the gully and under the shelter of a bulky
hummock. The two does and the stag had, however,
now disappeared, and, after watching for a few minutes,
I began to go forward up-wind, purposing, if possible,
to cut their trail. I had not gone more than fifty yards
before I saw the flank of one of the deer disappear
behind some trees about two hundred yards ahead, and
the next instant the does walked out into the open.
They were no more than a few yards from my
trail, and as I knew, once they got wind of it, they
would be scared away, I sat down and made ready to
shoot if, on seeing the stag, I should think it worth
while to do so.

Before many moments had passed the stag advanced

FURTHER DAYS. 267

slowly from the trees. He looked very big to my eyes,
for these mainland caribou are larger and heavier in the
body than their Newfoundland cousins, though their
horns, in spite of their weight, are seldom so sym-
metrical and show far fewer points. A glance now
assured me that the stag, moving with his slow, rather
cow-hocked action from the trees, bore an unusually
fine head, and the idea occurred to my mind that
he might be the very stag that Ross and Howard had
seen with the big herd. He walked on and then stood
still, giving me a steady broadside shot. I heard the
bullet strike, but the next moment the whole three had
stampeded, the does doubling back and running between
me and the wounded stag. When they had passed and
I could get in a clear shot, I fired again twice. On
receiving the second bullet the stag fell!

When I reached him he was quite dead, and I
realised that I had shot a truly fine specimen of the
mainland deer. On his horns, which were well
grown and palmated everywhere, save in the case of
one brow, I counted twenty-nine points, a greater
number than is usual with a Canadian woodland
caribou. After cleaning the stag I left him lying,
meaning to take off the head and head-skin on my
return, and once more pursued my way. Just over the
summit of the rise beyond, and within five hundred
yards of the spot from which I had shot the caribou, I
came upon the tracks of what must have been a very
large bull moose. Had 1 not seen and killed the
caribou, I should certainly have gone over this rise, and
on the open ground behind it would probably have
seen the moose standing at not more than a hundred
yards distance. Even though I had secured the big

268 HUNTING CAMPS.

caribou, I am afraid I wished for a moment that I had
never laid eyes upon him.

Knowing, however, that moose do not invariably
travel far even when startled, I took up the trail and
followed it through a marsh scored all over with
caribou tracks, and then climbed the flank of a hill, of
which the slopes were covered with birch trees. On
the further side of this hill the bull had gone into some
thick green timber, where under the trees little snow
had penetrated, and the trail in consequence was hard to
take up. But I found his tracks where he had paused
between two trees, and the displaced snow on the
branches bore clear evidence of a spread of horn of over
four feet. In another half-mile I lost the trail com-
pletely, and it was nearly two hours later before I
crossed it again on the edge of an alder swamp at the
base of the hill, where, after a prolonged struggle with
the alders in which I certainly was not the victor, I
gave up the pursuit, and, passing back along the lower
ridges of the hill, came to a well-defined path that had
been cut by migrating caribou. This path was as wide,
though not as deep, as those which I had seen in New-
foundland ; it presented but few fresh tracks and, within
no very long distance, debouched on the shores of a
small lake, where I ate my lunch, and while I ate I
heard a cow moose call several times on the mountain
side above me.

I passed the early part of the afternoon searching for
this moose, but when I at last discovered her tracks I
found she was alone, and therefore not worth following.
I next mounted to the top of the hill through the wood
of birches, and leaving this behind I came out above it
on the open hill-top, from which I gained a wonderful

Charlie with Buckboard and Trophies.

1

Homeward bound.

FURTHER DAYS. 269

view. I was about to enjoy looking round the country
when, almost straight below me, I caught glimpses
through the trees of a herd of caribou, seemingly about
thirty strong, on a marsh round the edge of which I had
in the morning tracked the moose. I came down the
mountain at my best speed, and was soon lying hidden
among the bushes within a hundred yards of the caribou.
A very fine stag escorted this herd, and also two smaller
one's ; the big fellow's horns, though long and beauti-
fully curved, were comparatively light. I lay watching
them for upwards of an hour before an outlying doe
winded my trail of the morning and gave the alarm, when
the whole herd made the water fly in their frantic retreat.

When they had gone I returned to the dead stag and
cut off his head and carried it back to camp, after a
day's hunting during which I saw more game within a
few hours than ever before or since in the same short
period of time in Canada. I found that Howard had
killed another caribou. Ross, Howard, and Gagnon all
agreed that the stag I had shot was the same that they
had seen a week earlier.

The death of that stag completed my limit for the
year under the Provincial licence, and the rest of my
trip was taken up in searching for moose.

Notwithstanding all my efforts, and those of Ed,
I failed to see a single one. Had the weather been less
boisterous, we might perhaps have tempted in a bull by
calling ; the nearest approach to success came to us one
evening, when I called and a bull answered. He was
coming in most promisingly when one of the French-
Canadians in the camp, a mile and a half away, began to
chop wood. We neither saw nor heard any sign of the
moose again.

270 HUNTING CAMPS.

During the following day, when we were all walking
on the trail, Ed spied a caribou stag a long way in
front. This animal Ross and he stalked successfully to
within long range, when Ross killed it — a nice head of
twenty-seven points.

With that shot our trip concluded. In the course of
it we had secured seven caribou and one moose ; the
caribou, and especially Howard's, were much above the
average.

The Canadian woodland caribou is, as I have said,
considerably larger than its Newfoundland relative.
The difference is especially noticeable in the hoofs, and
the mainland animal weighs at least a sixth as much
again as its congener. The horns are very distinctive,
being narrow in spread, heavy and carrying fewer
points ; the bays also are set very close to the brows.
It is however, always dangerous to dogmatise about
horn-growth in caribou, and I can only ask my readers
to draw their own conclusions from a comparison of
the horns of the two races figured in this book.

INDEX.

ALASKA, 197.

Alces americanus gigas, 197.

Andes, hunting in the, 26 — 53.

Argentine, Lake, 41, 43, 50.

Arnold, George, 86, 102, 115.

Atkins, Edward, 178 — 80, 182,
184—6, 190—2, 195—8, 231,
236, 237, 240—2, 244—6, 250
—5, 257, 261, 262, 264, 269,
270.

Atkins, Will, 198.

Auroch, Russian, 157.

Avalon Peninsula, 85.

BEARS, in Labrador, 67, 68 ;

in Norway, 157 ; : Polar, 72,

81.

Beaver, Newfoundland, 234 — 5.
Bernard, Stephen, 206.
Birchy Island, 211.
Blair, Mr. H., 115.
Boleadores, 25.
Borrow, George, 232.
Broomfield, Mrs., 60, 61.
Broomfield, Sam, 59, 62 — 5, 72,

73-

Bromley-Davenport, Mr., 3, 4.
Brulee, Lac, 236.
Buenos Aires, city of, 17; Lake,

50, 52 ; Mount, 43.

Burnt Hill, 215.
Butts Brook, 117, 148.

CANADA, moose hunting in, 178

— 202 ; caribou hunting in, 230

—70.
Caribou hunting in Canada, 230

— 70 ; in Labrador, 54 — 79 ;

in Newfoundland, 82 — 114, 115

— 48, 202 — 29.

Cattle, wild, Patagonian, 40 — 7.
Cavy, Patagonian, n, 12, 49.
Chico, River, 50.
Chimango, Patagonian, 12, 36.
Cod fishing, 80, 81.
Condor, Patagonian, 36—40.
Conn, River, 206.
Cooper's Brook, 212.
Corancho, Patagonian, 12, 36.
Crowe, Mr., 206.

DAVIS Inlet, 55, 69.

Deer Lake, no.

Deseado, River, 2, 30.

Dewey, Sam, 115, 116, 125, 128,
129.

Dewey, Walter, 115, 116, 125,
128, 129.

Dogs, Argentine, 17 — 9 ; Labra-
dor, 60, 6 1 ; Norwegian, 152,
155, 156, 161—63, 171, 175,
176; Patagonian, 36.

272

INDEX.

EDWARD, Lake, 198.

Elk, and moose compared, 196 ;

hunting in Norway, 149, 152

— 76, 200.
Eison, George, 71.
Eskimos, 63, 75.

FALKLAND Islands, 42.
Fanny's Harbour, 56 — 9, 71.
Fenix, River, 31.
Fox, Patagonian, 2, 3.

GALLEGOS, 50, 51.

Game laws, in Canada, 185, 195 ;
in Newfoundland, 82, 85, 207
— 9, 221 ; in Norway, 122, 149,
150; in the United States, 195.

Gathorne-Hardy, Mr. G. M.,
160, 162, 176, 197, 200, 204,
205, 210, 213, 216—7, 219, 223,
225—9.

Gander, River, 209.

George, River, 55, 64.

George IV. Pond, 224.

Glenwood, 205.

Glovertown, 86.

Goose, Patagonian, 12, 13.

Grouse, Labrador, 66, 67 ; Cana-
dian, 234, 259.

Guanaco, Patagonian, 3 — 6, 9 —
n, 14 — 16.

Guemal, Patagonian, 29, 30,
33—6.

Guns, sale of, to French Cana-
dians, 233.

HARE, Labrador, 73 ; Canadian,

234-

Harrigan, Cape, 58.
Hebron, 75.
Hellgate Cliffs, 37.

Hinds, Eleazar, 179.

Hopedale, 74.

Horses, Patagonian, 7, 8, 49 —

51-
Howard, Dr. Campbell, 257,

258, 261, 263, 264, 269, 270.
Howley, 83, 84, 209.
Hubbard, Mrs., 70, 71, 79.

IBIS, Patagonian, 48.

Igloo Camp, 68.

Indians, Micmac, 85, 136, 137,

206 ; Montagnai, 63, 69, 70 ;

Nascaupee, 63 ; Ona, 24 ;

Tehuelche, i, 5, 17, 24 — 6, 28.
Island Pond, 105.

JACK LANE'S Bay, 59.
Jack's Brook, 64, 65.
Jannasch, Dr., 76.
Jeddore, Joe, 206.
Jeddore, Nicolas, 212.
Jeinemeni, River, 32.
John's Pond, 84.
Jones, Humphry, 42.

KAGUDEK, 206.
Kennedy, Sir William, 92.
Krabbe & Higgins, Messrs., 50.
Kristian, 152, 176, 177.

LABRADOR, caribou-hunting in,
54—79 ; inhabitants of, 56, 75,
76 ; nature of country, 65, 66.

Lane, Old Man, 65.

La Plata, 40.

Lapps, 150, 176, 177.

Lewis, Reuben, 206, 212.

Loon, Labrador, 68, 69.

Los Antiguos, River, 32, 52.

INDEX.

273

Low, Dr., 55.

Lynx, Newfoundland, 91.

MAGELLAN, Straits of, 2.

Maine, 198.

Makkovik, 75, 76.

Mathias, 165 — 7.

Merganser, Labrador, 59.

Middle Ridge, 115, 131, 136,206.

Migwell's Brook, 212.

Millais, Lake, 117.

Millais, Mr. J. G., 54, 90, no,

note.

Mollygojack, Lake, 144.
Moose heads, sale of, 200, 201.
Moose-hunting and calling, in

Canada, 178 — 202, 258, 259.
Moravian Mission in Labrador,

55—7, 75—7-
Musters, Captain, 17, 26.

NAIN, 75.

Nansen, Dr., 75.

New Brunswick, 197, 198.

Newfoundland, caribou-hunting
in, 82 — 114, 202 — 29; fauna,
81, 82 ; game laws, 82, 85,
207 — 9, 221 ; inhabitants, 85,
13&> J375 Marine and Fish-
eries Department, 81 ; rail-
ways, 83, 87, 88 ; scenery, 114.

News, transmission of, in Pata-
gonia, 10, n.

Northcliffe, Lord, 224.

Norway, elk-hunting in, 149 —
77; farming conditions, 150,
151 ; game laws, 122, 149, 150.

OBAK, 75.

Osprey, Labrador, 69.
H.C.

Ostrich, Patagonian, 8, 9.
Ounaniche, 212.

PATAGONIA, general aspect, 1,2;
fauna, 2, 3, 48, 49 ; hunting in,
3 — 49 ; means of travelling,

49—53-
Perrett, Rev. W. W., 74.

Philadelphia, 245.
Pino, Lac, 199.
Piramide, Mount, 32.
Porcupine, Canadian, 234.
Price, Mr. W. W., 178, 197.
Prowse, Judge, 86, 92.
Puerto Madryn, 50.
Puma, Patagonian, 23, 24.

QUEBEC, 80.

RED Indian Lake, 224.

Reid Company, 54, 55.

Rendell, Mr. R. G., 55.

Rimouski, 197.

Rodseth, Peder, 152 — 7, 165 — 7,

169 — 72.

Rolling Falls, 211.
Ross, Mr. F. W., 178, 245, 257,

258, 261 — 4, 269, 270.

ST. JOHN'S, 55, 80, 81.

Saltatha, 69.

Santa Cruz, 50, 51.

Saunders, Bob, 144, 206, 211.

Seals, Labrador, 59, 60 ; New-
foundland, 80, 81.

Selous, Mr. F. C, 84, 90, 138,
197, 224.

Senguerr, valley of, 5, 13.

Sheep, Patagonian, 24.

Simon, Mr. I. H., 116, 117.
T

274

INDEX.

Snipe, Patagonian, 15.
Soulis Ann, 210.
Spracklin, Captain, 58.
Square Island, 56.
Squirrel, Canadian, 234.
Sweetapple, Ned, 206, 213.
Sylvester, Mount, 206.

TERRA Nova, 87 — 9, 116, 148.
Transport charges, extortionate,

246.
Trelew, 51.

Virginia Lake, steamer, 71, 157.

WAAG, Mr., 32.
Walrus, Labrador, 72.

Weapons, Patagonian native, 25.
Wells, Frank, 86, 102, 103, 115.
Wells, Jack, 57, 65, 66, 75, 86,

90, 93. 97> IOI> I03. "i. 112,
115, 124, 129, 130, 134, 146,

147, 206, 217 — 20, 222, 228.

Widgeon, Patagonian, 15.

Windy Tickle, 73.

Wolf, Newfoundland, 85; Nor-
wegian, 156, 157; Patagonian,
23, 48.

Woody Island, 205.

Wynyard, Captain, 115 — 8, 120,
124, 129, 130, 137, 138, 147,
148.

YELLOW shank, Labrador, 59.

BRADBVRT, AGKKW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBR1IXJK.

CAMERA ADVENTURES IN THE AFRICAN WILDS.

BY

A. RADCLYFFE DUGMORE, F.R.G.S.

WITH MAP AND REPRODUCTIONS OP NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS FROM
LIFE BY THE AUTHOR. 30*. net.

" From beginning to end it is a series of almost frantically exciting adventures,
and the author may well be proud of his trophies. They have been acquired under
conditions which, in many cases, the boldest hunter might well be excused for
declining to face, and we do not know whether to admire more their possessor's
courage and resource or his skill in photography. . . . Mr. Dugmore is something
more than an exceptionally daring sportsman and photographer. He is an acute
observer of the ways of both men and animals, and if anything, by evil chance,
escapes his camera, it is sure to be recorded by his pen." — Globe.

" This is one of the most fascinating and original books that has ever come
into our hands, and though the text is a plain tale modestly told, it is a record of
skill and daring which deserves the highest tribute. The photographs are a new
revelation of the animal world." — Wettmiiuter Gazette.

" The most important book that has yet been published to show photographs
of dangerous wild animals." — Country Life.

" Mr. Dugmore took more than three hundred photographs, many of them with
a telephoto lens or by flashlights. Nearly half of them are reproduced in this
book ; and they are certainly the best of their kind yet published. Of its kind
the book has no rival." — The Field.

" A pleasant, natural narrative, which is nowhere strained or exaggerated.
His very remarkable series of photographs will fascinate big game hunters as no
such volume has done before ; and beyond that, it will afford the keenest delight
to any one, old or young, who loves <rnimal* and animal-study. Not the least
memorable of the associations connected with it is the knowledge that the rifle was
used only now and then in self-defence and occasionally to procure meat for food,
. . . and this may recommend Mr. Dugmore's book to those who avoid the usual
big game hunters' records of destruction." — Times Literary Supplement.

" The finest exposition of the life of the African wilderness that has yet been
presented to the public. Nothing like these magnificent pictures has ever yet
been published ; and the lover of sport and nature, who has not the leisure or the
wherewithal to betake himself to the heart of the great game country, has now
presented to him in this book a faithful and magnificent gallery of wild beasts
scenery, and natives, from which he can glean exactly what the heart of Africa is
like." — Sporting and Dramatic Xews.

LOXDOX: WILLIAM HEIXEMAXX, 21, BEDFORD STREET.

THE

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SPORT AND GAMES.

Issued in Fortnightly Parts, Price i/- net per Part.
Also to be completed in Four Bound Cloth
Volumes, Imperial Svo, at 10 6 net per Volume.

Readers of Mr. Hesketh Prichard's book, " Hunting Camps in
Wood and Wilderness11 will probably like to meet more of his
stories and learn more of his adventures in pursuit of Big Game.
The Encyclopaedia of Sport and Games is fortunate in having
obtained his services to write upon many of the beasts that are
commonly hunted. Mr. Hesketh Prichard tells of his experiences
and gives much valuable advice to those who are interested in the
sport. He tells of the appearance, the habits, the characteristics
and the sizes of the various animals with which he deals, in such a
way as to encourage and assist the inexperienced sportsman and to
interest the veteran hunter. Mr. Hesketh Prichard has with him
many other experts in all branches of sport who contribute to the
Encyclopaedia. This work is the standard authority on the
subject. It is ably written and admirably illustrated with
hundreds of the finest photographs ever taken. When the first
number was published it was popularly acclaimed by Press and
Public as being "admirable in form and matter, in scheme and
in incorporation of all the most recent information.11

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN.

University of Toronto

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