228 HUNTING CAMPS. 



moved across to a lower hillock, some three-quarters of 

 a mile to the east. We had not been there ten minutes 

 before Jack saw something stirring in the woods, and a 

 moment or two later a stag appeared, feeding slowly 

 along at the foot of a hummock nearly a mile away. 

 He was gone out of sight before we could focus him 

 with the telescope, but his large size and branching 

 antlers led me to believe that he was the very animal 

 I had set my he art on finding. 



When I stalked him fortune stood my friend, for we 

 came upon his tracks before we again saw him, and, 

 following them very cautiously for eighty or a hundred 

 yards, presently got a view of the stag, his head hidden 

 behind a bush. When he raised his antlers above the 

 thicket I rejoiced, for he was the same stag, and no 

 other. It was impossible to mistake the enormous 

 solid brow, but I now perceived that the second brow 

 was represented by a little single spike. Still, the 

 horns were so wide and set at such a fine angle that I 

 felt no hesitation about killing him. I shot him through 

 the heart, at about eighty yards, and he sprang forward 

 down the hill and fell dead at the bottom of it. 



We were very pleased that our long waiting had 

 issued in success, for to hunt a stag is always more sport 

 than to hunt stags, since to locate and track a particular 

 animal affords greater scope for plan and stratagem. 



The season was by this time drawing to a close. Hardy 

 had shot two stags and I three, but as the Newfound- 

 land Government had kindly given me permission to 

 shoot extra specimens for natural history purposes, I 

 intended to exercise my right if by luck I saw a very 

 good stag, but not otherwise. Towards the end Hardy 

 and I hunted together, and some very memorable, though 



