142 HUNTING CAMPS. 



over the country like a sentinel. For a moment we 

 failed to sight the big stag, but soon we perceived him 

 feeding just over the top of the next rise. Half of the 

 great yellow body was visible, but his head was down, 

 and in that position two or three steps took him com- 

 pletely out of view. We were expecting No. 2 to 

 follow him, when, to my mortification, he quietly lay 

 down. To go further was impossible without alarming 

 him, so we also lay down and passed the time in 

 cleaning the telescope. When it was ready we had a 

 good look at the sentinel stag, and I was delighted to 

 find that he carried a very tolerable pair of horns and 

 was in all ways a mature stag. Beside his comrade he 

 had looked " nothing at all," as Wells put it. 



My only fear now was that the giant would travel 

 away while we were forced to wait ; still the chances 

 were in favour of the stags remaining together, and as 

 the one that was close to us showed no sign of uneasi- 

 ness I concluded that the other had lain down on the 

 further side of the ridge at no great distance. We 

 remained where we were as patiently as we could for the 

 better part of two hours before the inconvenient smaller 

 caribou at last rose and, stretching himself like a dog, 

 walked off at right angles in an aimless kind of way. 

 By this time our coats, which had been very wet, were 

 frozen quite hard, so that they crackled with our first 

 movements. Before very long we were peering over 

 the ridge where the big yellow stag had disappeared. 

 My supposition had been correct, for I soon made him 

 out lying down about two hundred yards away on the 

 opposite slope directly in front of us. A glance at the 

 horn nearest to us was enough to settle all doubts ; a more 

 massive antler no hunter could desire. Then with the 



