278 CANADIAN TURF RECOLLECTIONS 



with good sound, fat pork, venison and mountain trout as 

 the chief dishes, with tea, minus milk, and a bed to sleep 

 on made of three feet of cedar tips ; in fact, if you are 

 a thoroughbred sportsman, you will grow fat on these 

 luxuries and enjoy yourself accordingly. 



The morning of one 15th of October found myself and 

 four friends snugly encamped on the north shore of the 

 Big Redstone. The spot selected by our chief guide could 

 not have been improved upon. It was in a narrow valley 

 between high mountains, beautifully wooded to within 

 thirty feet of the shore, the beach of which was of white 

 sand, thus ensuring cleanliness around the camp. Our 

 tent, 20 by 18, was provided with a good sized box stove, 

 had a comfortable table made from driftwood picked up 

 along the shore; two large logs the whole length of the 

 tent formed at the same time a boundary for the sleep- 

 ing department, outlined a central passage through the 

 tent and made capital seats for us when we gathered 

 around the stove at night and talked * ' shoot. * ' 



Our first day's work netted us two does that were in 

 prime condition, and as the party were hungering for 

 venison steak broiled over the coals, one of them was 

 dedicated to camp use, and I am open to lay a comer lot 

 to a peanut stand that the average per man of deer meat 

 that night at supper would send a restaurant keeper into 

 convulsions. Just how many pounds per man were stow- 

 ed away I wont determine, but it was a prodigious 

 quantity. We started in for our twelve days' hunt with 

 the hope of averaging one deer a day, more than that we 

 did not desire, and when I state that we shot eleven deer 

 and about twenty-five brace of partridge, it will be seen 

 that our expectations were realized. The quantity of 

 venison secured enabled each one. of the party to remem- 

 ber his friends on his return to town. One of the eleven 

 shot was a buck that topped 300 pounds, and the noble 

 fellow's head was crowned with a pair of antlers that 

 for size, spread and symmetry it would be hard to match. 



One day's experience was fairly illustrative of its 

 fellows. Up at five o'clock every morning, a half hour 



