INCIDENTS OF STILL-HUNTING 241 



his mark, and, hastily stripping off his coat, went into the river 

 to remove the head. He brought ashore a good, massive 

 set of horns, wild in appearance, but not large in frame. 

 The evening was drawing on, so we returned to camp 

 and killed our stags over again around the blazing fire. 

 During the next few days the weather was still and hot, and 

 deer move about but little at such times. Under cover of 

 the night many stags crossed from the dense forest of the 

 south to the " loose " timber on the north bank, as I could see 

 by the fresh spoor each morning. We saw a couple of stags 

 every day, but nothing with a head good enough to tempt 

 one to take a shot. 



On the night of the 24th the men came with the canoes, 

 having had an arduous journey of eight days since leaving 

 Dog Lake. They had received some help on the three lakes, 

 but the river itself had proved nothing but a series of shallows 

 and rocky benches, in which it was unsafe to drag the canoes, 

 so they had had to pack nearly the whole distance. Martin 

 Matthews and his brother had worked well and were of great 

 assistance in portaging the outfit ; in fact without their timely 

 help the packers would have been three days longer on 

 the road. 



As he had now only one more stag to kill under the terms 

 of his licence and was also anxious to catch a steamer for home 

 early in October, my friend now departed for Glenwood, about 

 60 miles down the river. He was to stop either at Serpentine 

 Hill or Migwell's Brook, and I felt sure he would kill a good 

 one at one of these places. As a matter of fact he saw five 

 stags the first day at Serpentine Hill and killed the best one, 

 a twenty-eight pointer, and so returned to civilisation, having 

 thoroughly enjoyed his tramp. 



It is a curious thing how the habits and movements of 



Q 



