62 NEWFOUNDLAND 



buried in the moss, so we had to dig them out for fear of a 

 breakage. Jack set to work, and soon unearthed to view the 

 antlers of a typical caribou, not an extraordinary one, but a 

 fine well-developed head of thirty points, with good strong 

 brows and bays. The horns were rather longer than the 

 average, and the whole what Saunders described as a fine 

 head. We sat long discussing the incidents of the capture, 

 photographing, and skinning the head and neck whilst Jack 

 appropriated the thick rolls of fat lying across the buttocks. 

 This deer was the fattest I have ever seen when skinning 

 any specimen of the cervidce ; a good three inches of fat lay all 

 over the thighs, and there was also a thick layer all over the 

 lower parts. 



Next day, 23rd September, the equinoctial gales com- 

 menced from the west, and the wind increased till the 25th, 

 when it blew almost a hurricane. It was my custom to rise 

 at daybreak, the men getting up half-an-hour earlier to make 

 the fire and boil the kettle for our morning meal. On the 

 morning of the 24th, and when Saunders and Jack had 

 finished their breakfast, they went out to spy the marsh 

 from an open about 30 yards from the camp while I sat and 

 sipped my tea. My boots lay at some distance, and I was 

 just feeling pretty comfortable, thinking how much more 

 delightful camp was than crouching under the lee of a wet 

 bush, for it was still "blowing smoke," when Jack rushed in 

 to say that a great stag had just crossed the river, and was 

 even now traversing the marsh. There was no time to do 

 more than pull on my boots and to fiy out on the barren, 

 up across the wind so as to head the beast, for I knew he 

 would make for one of two passes. 



" A shocking set o' harns," said Saunders, taking the 

 glass from his eye as I dashed by him, but I did not do 



