A TRIP FOR REINDEER 



By ARNOLD HANSSEN 



IN THE month of July I was sent by 

 the Lauren tide Co., Ltd., of Grand' 

 Mere, Que., to bring a shipment of 

 reindeer from Newfoundland to 

 Quebec. By the courtesy of the De- 

 partment of Marine and Fisheries of 

 the Dominion Government we were 

 allowed to transport the deer on one 

 of their steamers which was making 

 the trip to coal and provision the light- 

 houses and telegraph stations. The 

 deer were purchased from the Grenfel 

 International Association and were at 

 their station on the peninsula between 

 Ha Ha and Pistolet Bays on the north- 

 ern coast of Newfoundland. This 

 peninsula, swept by the winds from the 

 north Atlantic, is mostly barren rocks, 

 covered with the white reindeer moss, 



except in the low sheltered places, where 

 there is dense small spruce, twisted by 

 the winds. 



I left Quebec late in July on the Gov- 

 ernment Steamship Montmagny, which 

 has since been sunk by collision with a 

 collier in almost the same manner as 

 the ill-fated Empress of Ireland. On 

 the fifth of August we arrived at Cape 

 Norman about ten miles from Ha Ha 

 Bay, when we received a message 

 telling us that war had broken out and 

 that as there were two German cruisers 

 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we must 

 return at once to Quebec. I was much 

 disappointed at being so near our 

 destination and unable to get the deer. 



Fortunately a couple of days later 

 we met the Government S. S. Mont- 



DOMINION GOVERNMENT SS. "MONTMAGNY" IN AN ICE FIELD. 



THIS BOAT, WHICH TRANSPORTED THE REINDEER, HAS SINCE BEEN SUNK AS THE RESULT OF A COLLISION IN ALMOST 

 THE SAME MANNER AS THE ILL-FATED EMPRESS OF IRELAND. 



