108 HUNTING CAMPS. 



the only chance was a shot at his neck. About eighty 

 yards from us, and nearer the stag, stood a thin cluster 

 of jumpers, and to this I crawled across a very wet 

 swamp. Again I spied through the telescope, and was 

 confirmed in my opinion. The stag carried a glorious 

 head, furnished with a forest of points. 



A few flakes of snow came floating down, and I 

 began to wonder whether it would not be wiser to 

 take a shot from where I then was, but decided against 

 doing so as my hands had almost lost feeling, owing to 

 the long, cold crawl through the marsh. Between me 

 and the stag, but partly in view of the young stag and 

 does, was a ridge with little rising hummocks. I crept 

 slowly to the shelter it afforded, and, having rubbed 

 some warmth into my hands, prepared to fire. I was 

 afraid to make the stag stand up, as he had cover on all 

 sides of him, so I had to shoot him as he lay. He 

 never moved at all, for the bullet, entering his neck, 

 severed the spinal cord. He was a truly splendid fellow, 

 carrying forty-three points, a white stag with a brown 

 back, but unusually white face, ears, and mane. I found 

 a small abscess in his forehead, caused probably by the 

 horn of a rival. 



With the death of this stag I had killed the outside 

 number allowed to the holder of an ordinary licence, 

 but finding myself in the centre of the migration I 

 resolved to remain a few days longer and make use of 

 the extra permit kindly granted me by the Govern- 

 ment. On the following day, therefore, we broke camp 

 at Doctor's Pond, where we had been so fortunate, and 

 moved on in a westerly direction to the head of Island 

 Pond ; there we camped in a drogue of spruce which 

 stood in a dominating position. 



