150 DEER STALKING ON 



and so on like a nest of Japanese boxes. From the shores of 

 Grand Lake the high tableland, where the herds of caribou wander, 

 can be reached by three or four hours of hard climbing up the 

 side of a thickly wooded declivity. Once arrived on the summit 

 there is the glorious tableland swept by the thrilling breath of the 

 mountain top, stretching away on every hand far as the eye can 

 reach, cut up by deeply worn deer tracks, diversified by countless 

 lakelets, by islands of dwarfed evergreen trees, and by low undu- 

 lating ridges of rugged hills. 



This champaign country is the natural home of the caribou, 

 and ministers to all his wants, including his necessity for bound- 

 less wandering. Beneath him, carpeting the plain, lies his 

 favourite food, the crisp grey caribou moss. When the winter 

 snows cover this too deeply, he can browse on the ' old men's 

 beards ', or the black fibrous moss hanging from almost every tree 

 trunk. These barrens seem to exist purposely to furnish him with 

 a magnificent pleasaunce. 



In many respects, Red Indian Lake exceeds the rest in attrac- 

 tiveness. 1 It was here that the now extinct tribe of Beothic Indians 

 loved to camp and hunt in the brief but beautiful Newfoundland 

 summer. The Beothics, 2 a branch of the Algonquin race, were 

 so barbarous and treacherous in their dealings with the early settlers, 

 that they brought on themselves a war of extermination, which 

 resulted in their extinction. After many cold-blooded murders, 

 it became the practice of the white population to shoot an Indian 

 at sight, as if he were a dangerous kind of wild animal. 



The usual remedy for Indian troubles was ruthlessly applied 

 extermination. Short was the shrift granted even to the squaws 

 and children when hunters surprised an encampment hidden away 

 in the forest, or in some nook among the cliffs of the seacoast. 

 This tribe were famed as excellent hunters. The caribou which 

 made their homes on the shores of the lake and its tributaries, 

 ducks and geese in vast numbers during the summer, and generally 

 speaking inexhaustible fish in the brooks which feed the lake, 

 yielded them an easy and pleasant means of living. During the 



1 The hunter looking for big antlers will soon have to cut Red Indian 

 Lake out of his field of operations, as the Harmsworth Company are invading 

 its precincts in their quest of pulp wood. The upper reaches of the Gander, 

 Terra Nova and Clode Sound rivers ; in fact the whole of the central portion 

 of the interior, as well as a large part of the northern peninsula, will offer 

 the greatest attractions to the adventurous sportsman seeking heads of 

 forty points and upwards. 



2 The lake is named after this tribe. On its shores they found the 

 deposits of red ochre by the assistance of which they dyed their features 

 to a deeper red than nature intended. 



