FURTHER DAYS. 265 



so full of incident that it is worth describing at length, 

 more especially as it is typical of a favourable day in that 

 region. Snow had fallen during the night, and lay all 

 over the country to the depth of about six inches. 

 This made my walks towards the Look-outs and 

 onwards very interesting, as it was, of course, possible 

 to see exactly what the movements of the deer had 

 been since about one o'clock in the morning. Two 

 large stags had crossed quite near the camp, but as the 

 rest of the party had arranged to hunt the ground to 

 which these passed I did not follow them. About a mile 

 from camp a moose, either a cow or a young bull, had 

 travelled down from the north and gone on into green 

 timber. By the time I had been walking for an hour 

 or so I suddenly saw a big caribou stag moving at a 

 good pace through the bruUe. 



From the direction in which he was travelling there 

 appeared to be a good chance of cutting him off near a 

 large maple, the red leaves of which made a beautiful 

 and easily-distinguished mark in the landscape. I 

 hurried to this tree, and had not long to wait before the 

 stag came trotting in a leisurely manner into view and 

 not more than a hundred yards from me. He had a 

 good pair of horns, with two very long and well- 

 developed bays, but both the brows were represented 

 by mere lengthy spikes, and the tops were practically 

 destitute of points. I therefore let him pass in peace 

 and slipped away, crossing the back-trail of the stag, 

 and made my way to a ridge of low barrens and 

 hummocks, over which the walking was very bad, as 

 the snow had drifted into the hollows. Half an hour's 

 floundering brought me to the open highlands where I 

 had shot the stag on the first day of hunting, and 



