254 NEWFOUNDLAND 



when he dashed round with a loud "whoup" of fear, and, 

 taking the other stags along with him, stood for a moment 

 on the hill and then galloped off to the north. 



We had not left the hill two minutes when we encountered 

 another large stag — a regular old patriarch he looked, with 

 thin, wretched horns. He was moving westwards, so we 

 let him go by without disturbance. At midday we found 

 two more stags by slow still-hunting. These were also 

 undesirable old fellows, and about three another big fellow 

 heard or smelt us as we passed along, and galloped off in 

 great terror. About four we passed several does, and then 

 saw the usual snow-white neck of a large stag as it lay on 

 the edge of a small barren. What was my surprise to see, 

 on raising the telescope, that the beast was a "hummel,"^ or 

 hornless stag, certainly a rarity, but one we did not appreciate. 

 It was getting late, so we turned homewards down-wind, 

 still hunting carefully as we went along. It was getting 

 nearly dark when I saw the stern of a large stag move 

 round a belt of firs about 200 yards to our left, and at 

 once left Joe and crept after the animal. The horns of the 

 stag were swaying from side to side as they always do when 

 a well-antlered deer moves along with his head down, so I 

 had hopes of securing another good head. Presently the 

 stag turned sideways, and I sat up and allowed him to see 

 me, as I wanted him to raise his head. The result was not 

 satisfactory — a well-formed twenty-five pointer, but not class 

 enough, so he was allowed to trot away to his friends. 



So home to camp at seven, without having fired my rifle 

 and having seen nine warrantable stags. 



During the next three days we continued our still-hunting, 

 and were successful in finding a good many deer, but no 



1 Hummels are much rarer amongst caribou than red deer. Joe had only seen 

 two in his life before the present example. 



