Newfoundland 
over each shoulder. Such loads are awkward 
things to pack through timbered country, as the 
bushes have an annoying trick of hitching one 
up at every available opportunity. Luckily, the 
country hereabouts was mostly of the barren 
order, the ravines which divide up the barrens 
at infrequent intervals being the only wooded 
portions. 
I was much struck by seeing one broad strip 
of timber in which every tree was dead. Stark 
and bare the great limbs stood out against the 
wonderful blue of the sky. This desolate line 
extended from the creek in the bottom, trans- 
versely, to the outer edge of the canyon; the 
widest part was perhaps a hundred yards, with a 
length of about six hundred. Pat said that the 
damage had been caused by lightning. What a 
storm it must have been! Sweeping all before 
it, and blasting every living stick standing within 
the zone of the stroke! 
We had covered half the distance back to 
camp when I caught sight of a splendid caribou, 
at about four hundred yards distance, just dis- 
appearing behind a rise of ground, and coming 
towards us. 
We at once dropped, hiding amongst a small 
clump of bushes. It seemed to me like an hour, 
it was about five minutes really, before a magnifi- 
cent old stag came into full view, walking very 
slowly and lamely, stopping now and again to 
25 
