104 NEWFOUNDLAND 



yards. I have never been so near a wild deer before, and 

 he backed away from the cherry tree before deciding to 

 make a bolt of it. One moment we both stood still and 

 stared at one another, and having mutually decided that 

 our heads were unnecessary, he gave a plunge and was gone. 

 The stag had hardly vanished when a tinkle of falling stones 

 made me look to the left, and there I saw another good-sized 

 stag carrying about thirty points, walking leisurely along the 

 open stones away from me. He gave me one proud glance, 

 ran a few steps, and then settled to a walk, at which pace 

 he continued till lost to sight round a bend in the river. 

 He was a fine young stag of perhaps five years, but the tops 

 were unfinished, wherefore not deemed good enough in new 

 ground like this. I followed the track of this stag some 

 little distance, and it led me north to low sandy hills and 

 into a beautiful broken country, all leads, marshes, opens, and 

 clumps of spruces, just the place for "summering" stags. 

 I saw, too, five or six small larches newly " stripped," where 

 stags had cleaned their horns recently, so when the men 

 came up I decided to stop a day and hunt. 



The sun was low as Saunders and I left the camp. 

 Glancing up the stream from the point of Migwell's Brook, 

 we at once noticed two young stags come from a lead on 

 the north bank, and across the river. Everything seemed 

 to show that we were now in a great stag country. The 

 does had all passed on out to the open marshes to the south, 

 and the old males would remain here solitary or in pairs for 

 at least another fortnight, before they, too, would follow, 

 and seek them in the open marshes of the high country. 



We crept noiselessly up the sandy hills till we came to 

 a hillock rising higher than the rest. Here I ascended a 

 larch, and spied the surrounding country for a mile or two. 



