CHAPTER V. 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER HUNTING NEAR MIDDLE 



RIDGE. 



THE shooting season of 1904 I had originally intended 

 to spend in Canada in the hope of securing a moose, 

 an ambition that I had entertained for a long time. 

 Eventually I changed my plans for various reasons, the 

 chief among them being the wish to return to Newfound- 

 land for the purpose of hunting in the country which 

 lies in the neighbourhood of Middle Ridge, a region 

 which, I believe, had never been penetrated save by the 

 Indians. It happened that early in 1904 I mentioned 

 this district and the good sport I had enjoyed on its 

 confines to Captain E. G. Wynyard, who wished to 

 accompany me if ever I revisited it. I therefore gave 

 up the idea of moose for the time being and com- 

 menced to make arrangements for a return to New- 

 foundland by buying, through Mr. Henry Blair, of 

 Water Street, St. John's, two excellent canoes. 



I also wrote, through the same admirable agent, 

 to try and engage the same men who had accom- 

 panied me in the previous year, and was glad to 

 find that Jack and Frank Wells were available ; but 

 George Arnold had left the island for the summer, 

 having gone with his sons on a cod-fishing venture to 

 the Labrador coast, and we therefore engaged Walter 

 and Sam Dewey, of Glovertown, Alexander Bay. 

 Walter, a man with the excellent quality of keen sight, 



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