CHAPTER V 



A HUNTER'S PARADISE 



The next day being Sunday, we rested, and on Monday, 14th 

 September, continued up stream, the men being" greatly 

 hampered by the shallowness of the water, the "slobby" 

 rocks, and a somewhat tempestuous head-wind. Saunders 

 fell in up to his neck four times during the morning, but 

 the day was not cold, so we worked on five miles to the 

 mouth of Migwell's Brook, a small stream that enters the 

 Gander on the north bank about fifty miles from the 

 lake. 



I was about two miles ahead of the canoes, and sat 

 behind a large rock. It was blowing half a gale, and the 

 time being midday, I hardly expected to see game. As the 

 wind swayed and rocked the forest at my back, one became 

 accustomed to the crackle and brush of twig upon twig and 

 bough against bough, but somehow more than once I could 

 not help thinking that I heard dry wood " snapping " when 

 there was a lull. The inner consciousness of doubt soon 

 resolved itself into a certainty that some large animal was 

 breaking down a tree close beside me, so I dropped my book, 

 cocked the rifle, and looked over the high bank just as 

 wild cherry was violently shaken almost in my face. 



" Now, Mr. Bruin, I have you at last," I said to myself, 

 in the excitement of the moment. But it was not a bear 

 after all, but a great caribou stag, with horns evidently on 

 the decline, staring me in the face at a distance of about six 



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