FURTHER DAYS. 261 



was borne out by the tracks of a large moose that Ed 

 and I found on the other side of the river. 



However, we were blind to this impending event as 

 we bade good-bye to Charlie and made our way up the 

 river and across the lake, arriving a little before sunset 

 at my camp of the previous year, from which Ed and I 

 had shot three caribou. That night we were attacked 

 by myriads of biting insects, but whether they came out 

 of the grass on which we lay, or were an importation 

 we brought with us from the last outlying points of 

 civilisation, we never knew. 



On the following morning it was agreed that Ross, 

 Ed, and I should hunt the farther part of the ground, 

 leaving Howard, with Gagnon, on the nearer of the two 

 look-outs. For the first two hours we saw but little 

 sign of deer ; then, just before coming to the hill under 

 which we had shot two stags in 1907, we spied some 

 does, and soon after Ross and Ed saw a stag. We 

 took a short circuit for the wind, and then lay down 

 behind a bush to hold a council of war. As I was 

 walking behind the others, I had not caught sight of the 

 stag. I may mention that before starting I had said 

 that I wished to shoot a stag with big tops, while Ross 

 had expressed his preference for a symmetrical head and 

 brows. Having spied the stag with his glass, Ross now 

 turned to me and told me it had fine tops, and most 

 unselfishly insisted on my taking the shot. We crawled 

 a little nearer, and for the first time I gained some view 

 of the horns. I could only see them very partially 

 through close intervening bush, as the stag was lying 

 down. 



There were, however, ahead of me, some well-placed 

 spruces, one of which appeared to be within a hundred 



