280 NEWFOUNDLAND 



best valleys for deer in Newfoundland spreads itself out 

 for miles. 



Along these valleys and hills deer were constantly passing, 

 and during the rutting season a company or two were gene- 

 rally in view at any time of day from our look-out. Close to 

 the camp was the greater part of a doe which Micky John 

 had killed in the previous week, so I spent the next day in 

 walking to the Great Maelpeg Lake, and following the course 

 of two other unnamed lakes, which connect this large sheet 

 of water with Prowse's Lake, and doing some mapping. We 

 saw several stags, with herds of does numbering from five to 

 twelve individuals, and they were all very tame and unsophis- 

 ticated, as the wind was strong. In the evening it commenced 

 to rain in the usual Newfoundland fashion, and we were glad 

 to spread my waterproof sheet over the leaky "tilt" and so 

 make things snug. For three days abominable weather, 

 accompanied by damp fog, continued, so there was nothing 

 to do but sit at home and wait for the weather to improve. 

 On the 15th it cleared up, and we received a visit from Micky 

 John and a little boy of nine — his nephew, named Steve 

 John — who were on their way to Sambadesta (St. John's 

 Lake), where they meant to spend the fall trapping " wood- 

 cats " (martens). Between them they had a broken gun, 

 no tent-sheet, and about enough provisions to last, with a 

 stretch, a fortnight. They arrived soaked to the skin, but 

 in nowise discouraged, for the disposition of these nomads 

 is nothing if not hopeful, and they would talk of no other 

 subject but the pile of skins they hoped to gather. With 

 them came Johnny Hinx, my John's youngest son, a boy of 

 eighteen, a splendidly set-up young fellow, happy in the posses- 

 sion of two hungry-looking dogs and a gun as long as himself. 



We all broke camp on the morning of the i6th, each 



