88 HUNTING CAMPS. 



at intervals into star-lit waters. But at that hour, between 

 night and morning, one thinks little of the charms of scenery, 

 the more especially as there was barely time to dress before 

 we began to slacken speed and finally to draw up. My 

 baggage, my " camp " as it is called in Newfoundland, 

 was dropped out and stacked beside the metals, the con- 

 ductor's voice echoed through the frosty air, and the train 

 swung away out of sight, the louder clang as it disappeared 

 telling of the trestle bridge across the head of Terra Nova 

 Lake. 



I found refuge in the single wooden house of Tim Hawco, 

 the section-man. Lonely as was the spot, it knew nothing 

 of the silences of solitude, for in the little room of the rail- 

 way agent the telegraph machine never seemed to cease 

 its clatter for ten minutes, day or night. Such was Terra 

 Nova in ^903, but since then a lumber mill and the men 

 employed in its working have altered the place a good 

 deal. 



I found that my men had not yet arrived from Alexander 

 Bay, but was not much surprised, as they were to come by 

 an " accommodation." The trains run by the Reid Com- 

 pany are of two kinds the express and the accommoda- 

 tion. How the latter came by its name I do not know, 

 unless it be that it is the duty of an accommodation train 

 to accommodate ; but, to judge from the opinions freely 

 offered by its passengers, it does not altogether achieve 

 success in this respect. Its speed rarely averages fifteen 

 miles an hour, with further delays of stoppages to collect 

 or to set down freight, or to allow the express to pass 

 delays which sometimes run into hours, a hardship not a 

 little accentuated by the fact that nothing in the shape of 

 food is procurable on board. There is, I have heard, a 

 rule on the Reid line that any train twelve hours behind 

 the scheduled time becomes a special a great many accom- 

 modations must become specials ! Many people, especially 



