324 NEWFOUNDLAND 



Topsails and Bay of Islands, the main body pursuing lines 

 across the White Hill plains, Howley, Goose Brook, and 

 Patrick's Marsh. In mid-September came more does and 

 half-grown stags, and at the end of the month the breeding 

 deer, consisting of adult does and stags. Throughout October 

 more and more stags, influenced according to the weather, 

 continued to pass southwards, and in the first week in 

 November the last of the big deer and the "main jamb" 

 of small deer brought up the rearguard — the migration being 

 over about the 20th of that month. Of the subsequent 

 movements of the animals but little was known, except that 

 during the late winter great numbers made their appearance 

 between White Bear River and La Poile, on the south-west 

 coast, and were killed by the men of this district. 



During the first few years of the railway every man who 

 had a rifle or gun repaired in the autumn to various crossing- 

 places of the deer, and in a couple of days killed all he desired. 

 At first good heads were not considered, but soon it became 

 known to the fishermen that a fine stag's horns were worth 

 money, so the slaughter of the adult stags became as much 

 a matter of importance as a saleable article as a fat doe 

 meant to themselves. Without any restrictions the slaughter 

 of stags commenced, and it was not unusual for one man who 

 was a good shot and knew the trails to kill as many as twenty 

 heads in a fortnight. This went on for several years, until 

 the slaughter became so reckless ^ that the Government took 

 notice of it, and enforced a law by which only five deer 



' A man armed with a Winchester rifle seated in the railway line near Howley, in 

 October 1897, killed the leading doe of a herd of twenty-eight deer. As she fell 

 the others were thrown into helpless confusion, and stood about offering easy targets. 

 The ruffian then killed the whole herd, of which only one carcase was removed. 

 This dastardly act was reported in St. John's, and was the chief cause of the 

 Game Act. 



