CANADIAN GEESE. 121 



flock of Canadian geese, disturbed by our 

 approach flew up from the same mud-bank on 

 which we had seen them sitting the previous day. 

 I may here say that from the farther bank of the 

 river opposite our camp there stretched, be- 

 ' tween the forest and the lake, a wide expanse 

 of mud and sand, which appeared to be a 

 favourite resort of ducks and geese, and, as it 

 afterwards appeared, of caribou as well. 



I had just had something to eat and was 

 commencing to skin the head of the stag shot 

 in the morning when Saunders announced that 

 there was a deer on the lake shore beyond the 

 river, about a mile away from camp. 



On looking through my glasses I saw at 

 once that it was a big stag, and as I could see, 

 too, that its antlers just above its head were 

 very much palmated, I judged it to be an 

 animal worth shooting. I therefore got 

 Saunders to paddle me across the river at 

 once, and we then skirted the open ground 

 in the shelter of the forest. When at length I 

 got opposite to the stag I found that it had 

 lain down right out on the bare ground. 



