16 NEWFOUNDLAND 



I crawled up along the stones, and immediately saw the doe 

 standing in nearly the same spot. She was still 250 yards 

 away, so to make sure of our meat I took advantage of 

 another miniature headland, and crawled on to make a closer 

 acquaintance. There was little cover, but the caribou took no 

 precautions for her safety, and allowed me to come within 

 80 yards without once raising her head for observation. A 

 nice rock to shoot from presented itself at this corner, so, 

 pressing the trigger, I had the satisfaction of seeing the deer 

 drop dead in her tracks. On a fresh trip, with new men, it 

 is always a satisfactory thing to kill the first animal at which 

 you fire, as it gives confidence to your followers and creates 

 a favourable impression, so I took as much care over the 

 easy shot at that wretched doe as if I was firing at a fifty- 

 pointer. 



We had some fresh meat now, and after photographing the 

 animal we cut it up, and then paddled away in high spirits for 

 St. John's Lake, which we reached about five o'clock. We 

 had made good progress, but desired to complete the whole 

 distance to the end of the lake before nightfall, so pressed on. 

 On the way up the lake we passed four more doe caribou 

 gazing into the water, like some others of their sex, apparently 

 lost in admiration of their loveliness as reflected by Nature's 

 mirror. One old lady allowed us to go by within 15 yards, 

 and seemed in nowise upset at our presence, as she had not 

 got our wind. At last our temporary Ultima Thule hove in 

 sight, the river mouth at the west end, and I immediately 

 recognised the Indians' observation tree, which Selous had told 

 me to look out for — a gnarled and bent old white pine, standing 

 out in picturesque solitude from the forest of spruce. As we 

 moved up to the landing-place a caribou doe was wading in 

 the shallows about 300 yards away. She swam slowly across 



