IN TIMBER AND BRtlL^E. 245 



farewell, we agreed that, as it was obviously impossible 

 to accept defeat, we would do our best to retrieve our 

 failures in the following September. 



This plan, as well as a mortifying sense of my late 

 ill-success, was much in my mind during the inter- 

 vening months ; but I' homme propose, and the September 

 trip was ultimately made impossible owing to an invita- 

 tion to play cricket in Philadelphia and Canada. As 

 the dates of our matches covered the whole of the month 

 of September, it was not until the 6th of October that 

 Edward and I once more found ourselves on the road 

 for the arena of our return match with the caribou. 

 This time fortune had been our friend, and, thanks to 

 the kind help of Mr. F. W. Ross, I had received per- 

 mission to hunt over a new country. My only regret 

 was that Mr. Ross was not able to accompany me, as he 

 had originally intended. 



Our journey was marred byone of those irritating occur- 

 rences of which a hunter over-eager to reach his hunt- 

 ing-ground is apt to become the victim. I imprudently 

 hired a " rig " and its driver, who happened also to be 

 the owner of the vehicle, without bargaining as to price, 

 as the man had recently worked for some friends at the 

 usual tariff. Hence it was that, early on the road, I was 

 faced with the ultimatum, " Either you give me fiftee 

 dollars, or I take your baggage no furder," a state of 

 affairs hard to bear without temptation to resort to a 

 course which, besides being unlawful, may well be un- 

 dignified, especially as in the present instance the carter 

 possessed the four feet eleven physique of a Mousqueton. 

 However, we finally slept upon our differences, and the 

 following morning my suggestion that we should make 

 an immediate start was acted on without argument. At 



