70 NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 



wretched stag. At last, after what seemed an interminable 

 time, he appeared to be satisfied that I was only a rather 

 peculiar stump, and he turned his head. Instantly I 

 dropped — only just quickly enough — for at almost the same 

 moment he glanced in my direction again and was apparently 

 rather bewildered at not seeing me. This was a critical 

 moment. If it had been a doe she would without doubt 

 have come forward to investigate, but the stags are much 

 less curious, and after staring intently, he walked away, 

 leaving me to continue my very difficult stalk. In due 

 time I succeeded in working my way past the worst of the 

 obstructions to a place which offered me a fairly good sight 

 of the two stags. There was only one small dead tree to 

 interfere with the otherwise clear view. Now it was 

 necessary to stand up very slowly and carefully, so as to 

 bring the camera above the immediate foreground. With 

 perhaps fifty caribou within sixty or seventy yards, this was 

 risky ; however, I finally stood up and had the pleasure of 

 seeing the two big fighting stags on the ground glass of the 

 camera. It was a shame to disturb the two in their great 

 struggle for supremacy, but there was no time to lose, for 

 with so many animals about me I was bound to be dis- 

 covered before long, so as soon as the focus was correct and 

 everything examined, I pressed the button. 



What a pity it is that shutters are not silent in their 

 working. The slight click that was made was easily heard 

 by one of the nearer does ; for her it was sufficient infor- 

 mation that something was wrong ; what it was she did 

 not wait to find out, she simply gave a loud snort — that 

 aggravating signal of alarm — and the whole herd was on the 

 move as though a bugle had sounded the charge, scampering 

 as fast as they could towards the doe. On they came at full 

 speed, trotting and jumping, some coming straight towards 



