CHAPTER III. 



ON THE LABRADOR. 



IT must be acknowledged that there is something 

 extraordinarily attractive about a hunting-ground that 

 is still virgin, especially when it holds out a prospect 

 of illimitable square miles of country and endless 

 possibilities of anticipation, even if these latter never 

 materialise. 



It was with this most elusive charm about its prac- 

 tically untrodden interior that I set out for the Labrador 

 peninsula in the early autumn of 1903, with the hope of 

 finding out how and where there was a reasonable 

 chance of coming in view of the herds of Barrenland 

 caribou that roam at large through that houseless land. 



Mr. J. G. Millais accompanied me to Newfoundland, 

 intending to go on to the Labrador, but on arriving at 

 St. John's we found to our vexation that the Virginia 

 Lake, the Reid Company's steamer, which at the time 

 plied to the further Labrador ports and has since been 

 lost on that coast, had started for the north and was not 

 expected to return for ten days or a fortnight. Upon 

 learning this Millais decided to shoot in Newfoundland 

 and to give up the further trip as it was late in the 

 season and it was necessary for him to be back in 

 England by October. As this was not imperative in 

 my case, I determined to carry out my intention of 

 reaching Labrador, as, though I had small hope of being 

 able to complete any extended trip before the ice closed, I 



