9 o HUNTING CAMPS. 



further and further into the interior, still a great portion of 

 it remains to-day uninhabited, trodden only by the deer 

 and the lynx, an occasional bear, or coveys of willow-grouse ; 

 but these birds are found in much larger numbers more to 

 the south. 



Two successful hunting trips had already taken Terra 

 Nova as their point of departure, one being that of Mr. 

 Selous, to which I have already alluded ; and in the follow- 

 ing year that of Mr. J. G. Millais. Both these had been 

 September trips, and it yet remained to be seen what luck 

 a hunter would meet with who spent October in approxi- 

 mately the same district. I had planned to go some little 

 distance above the head of George's Pond in canoes, and 

 there to " take the country." We carried provisions for 

 four weeks, a change of clothes apiece, and our sleeping 

 gear. 



After breakfasting, I spent the morning in doing the 

 half-dozen odd jobs that always gather about the outset of 

 a journey. Life contains many good moments, but few, I 

 think, better worth living than those anticipatory ones 

 passed in making ready to start for new, or indeed for 

 familiar, hunting-grounds. 



The train from the north was some hours late, and did 

 not come in till one o'clock, and when it arrived I learned 

 that a canoe on which I had relied, and which Jack was to 

 bring from Glovertown, was unfortunately not available. 

 This might very easily have caused me a long delay had it 

 not been for the fortunate and accidental presence of a 

 large flat-bottomed boat which belonged to an acquaintance 

 of Jack Wells. About three o'clock, or a little later, all 

 was prepared, and we set out, shoving off into the shallow 

 waters of the Terra Nova, Jack Wells and myself pulling 

 the big flat, the other two men in charge of a canvas canoe. 

 The wind had veered and blown away the clouds of the 

 morning, and soon the last vestiges of civilisation, the gaunt 



