252 NEWFOUNDLAND 



eaten away by does during the previous winter. Ah, if 

 only I could see the grand fellow who bore that trophy ! he 

 must have been a veritable fifty-pointer. Whilst Joe spied 

 I beat the ground carefully in circles in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, in the hope of discovering the other horn 

 of the pair ; but I did not find it, although I discovered two 

 other splendid horns (both right antlers), one bearing twenty 

 points, the other twenty-one. That stags of forty, forty-two, 

 and fifty points had each shed their antlers within 200 yards 

 of one another in 1903, for they were all two years old, was 

 somewhat remarkable, but it shows what magnificent heads 

 are still hidden in the forest of the Upper Gander. 



In ten minutes Joe descended, having only seen three 

 does and a small stag, so we proceeded to a high mound of 

 sandstone rock which commanded a splendid view of the 

 whole of the open forest to the north. Much of it was so 

 hidden that there might be dozens of stags there without 

 our seeing them, as the whole place was covered with fresh 

 tracks and droppings. The best chance was to wait and 

 view a moving stag, as such an one is quickly picked up by 

 experienced eyes as it flashes in and out amongst the trees, 

 even a couple of miles away. 



" I think stags goin' to be very quiet to-day, boss," 

 remarked Joe, as he shut up the glass. " It's goin' to be 

 too fine " — a prognostication that was not fulfilled, for at 

 intervals we kept viewing deer the whole day. We had 

 not long to wait when Joe made an excellent spy, seeing a 

 stag moving through the trees fully a mile away. He was 

 heading due west, and travelling from thicket to thicket over 

 very broken and hilly ground. "We must run," said Joe, 

 and run we did, until we were both exhausted. Down into 

 holes, through alder swamps, then up little sandy hills, 

 through little thickets, then on to hard moss ground, then 



