FURTHER DAYS. 267 



slowly from the trees. He looked very big to my eyes, 

 for these mainland caribou are larger and heavier in the 

 body than their Newfoundland cousins, though their 

 horns, in spite of their weight, are seldom so sym- 

 metrical and show far fewer points. A glance now 

 assured me that the stag, moving with his slow, rather 

 cow-hocked action from the trees, bore an unusually 

 fine head, and the idea occurred to my mind that 

 he might be the very stag that Ross and Howard had 

 seen with the big herd. He walked on and then stood 

 still, giving me a steady broadside shot. I heard the 

 bullet strike, but the next moment the whole three had 

 stampeded, the does doubling back and running between 

 me and the wounded stag. When they had passed and 

 I could get in a clear shot, I fired again twice. On 

 receiving the second bullet the stag fell. 



When I reached him he was quite dead, and I 

 realised that I had shot a truly fine specimen of the 

 mainland deer. On his horns, which were well 

 grown and palmated everywhere, save in the case of 

 one brow, I counted twenty-nine points, a greater 

 number than is usual with a Canadian woodland 

 caribou. After cleaning the stag I left him lying, 

 meaning to take off the head and head-skin on my 

 return, and once more pursued my way. Just over the 

 summit of the rise beyond, and within five hundred 

 yards of the spot from which I had shot the caribou, I 

 came upon the tracks of what must have been a very 

 large bull moose. Had 1 not seen and killed the 

 caribou, I should certainly have gone over this rise, and 

 on the open ground behind it would probably have 

 seen the moose standing at not more than a hundred 

 yards distance. Even though I had secured the big 



