A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 107 



At last we went to the edge of the water and boiled 

 our kettle and ate our bread and smoked trout. While 

 we were doing so a heavy fall of " sleepy snow " came 

 on, and the bad weather looked as if it had set in for 

 the day. But it proved better than we hoped. When 

 the snow ceased we moved on, but presently took 

 shelter again. By this time it was growing late, and as 

 we were six or seven miles from camp I was about to 

 suggest that we should turn our faces towards it, when 

 Jack proposed going to the brow of the next rise and 

 having one last spy round. 



Over the rise we saw eleven does, one small stag, and 

 another partially shut in by scrub. We looked for some 

 time with the glass, but could not get a satisfactory 

 view of this stag, when a third, which had been lying 

 behind him, rose and thrust out his head between the 

 spruce boughs. A glance showed it to be a magnifi- 

 cent one. He gradually came out and lay down again 

 in the lee of another cluster of spruces, giving me the 

 chance of examining him more closely. Through the 

 glass I could see that he had, at any rate, one very 

 large brow. Then he raised his head and showed great 

 palmated bays, a large curling spike behind each. He 

 was of a peculiarly white colour, with antlers of a much 

 lighter red than common. 



I decided at once to shoot him if I could, which 

 seemed very doubtful, as he was not favourably placed 

 for stalking ; besides which a young stag and two does 

 had moved along and lain down on a hillside about 

 one hundred and fifty yards to our right and command- 

 ing our position among the cranberry roots. We were 

 not more than two hundred and fifty yards from our 

 quarry, but he was lying down in such a position that 



