12 NEWFOUNDLAND 



biscuit was hurled twenty yards away, to be instantly raced for, 

 but Thomas, half running, half flying, proved an easy victor. 



"They're great friends to a feller," said the little man 

 reflectively, adding as an afterthought — " when he ain't at 

 work." 



Poor boy, they were about the only friends he had 

 to talk to in all the comings and goings of the seasons, 

 except when a passing hunter or fisherman came to beg an 

 ounce of tobacco of the old section man. Mike helped us 

 to stow the last of our packages aboard, and, wishing us good 

 luck, we left behind the last trace of civilisation in his lonely 

 little figure meditatively "chucking" rocks for the happy 

 family to retrieve. 



The morning was beautifully fine, with no wind, so we 

 made good time with the canoes pushing along the river- 

 lake for some miles before we emerged into the large Terra- 

 Nova Lake, a fine sheet of water about five miles long and 

 one and a half across. We landed on a shingly beach to 

 readjust some of the stores that were not riding well, and 

 here I saw the fresh track of a small bear, the first sign of 

 the wild game, always an inspiriting sign to every hunter. 

 At the west end of the lake, where the river comes in, we 

 stopped and had dinner, and then on again up a dead stream 

 for another ten miles or so until sunset. In some places I 

 had to land whilst the men dragged the canoes, and here 

 I always found some fairly fresh sign of caribou. By sunset 

 we halted, and the men made a comfortable camp in a " droke " 

 (belt) of spruce close to the water ; and though wet to the 

 waist they did not change their clothes, but lay down soaking 

 as they were, and allowed the fire to steam the water out. 

 Next day it was a case of walking up along the stones of 

 the river bed, while Saunders and Jack dragged the canoes 



