96 HUNTING CAMPS. 



In all directions deer-paths intersected the marshes, 

 and we came upon some very large tracks. But a large 

 track is by no means to be depended on as indicating a 

 good head. 



The 28th of October was a beautiful day, clear and 

 brilliant, with a north-west wind and a covering of light 

 snow lying over the face of the country. I had arranged 

 that Frank Wells and Arnold should again go back to the 

 base camp and bring up some more provisions ; while Jack 

 Wells and I remained to hunt towards Island Pond, a lake 

 lying to the westward. On the previous evening we had 

 seen several herds, and hoped that we had perhaps found a 

 large body of the migrating deer. 



However, when we set out after breakfast in the direc- 

 tion of Island Pond, we walked a couple of miles, seeing 

 nothing save a couple of does. The features of the country 

 now began to change somewhat. Large hummocky ex- 

 panses of barren crowned with boulders spread ahead of us ; 

 there was less marshland, though from the hills over which 

 we were walking we could see two or three sheets of water 

 partially surrounded by trees. Small clumps of juniper and 

 of birch, spruce, and pine were scattered over the landscape. 



It was just past ten o'clock when we saw the first stag 

 of that day standing on the ridge of a barren ; half-a-dozen 

 does were lying on the ground near him. As the wind hap- 

 pened to be favourable and the cover good, there was little 

 difficulty in approaching within two hundred and fifty 

 yards of him, but, to our disappointment, his head, which 

 had looked very well against the sky-line, proved on closer 

 inspection to be merely average, and after watching him 

 descend to a marsh we climbed higher up the little hill we 

 were on, and from there I descried some deer, including a 

 tolerable stag, lying down in some soft ground to the south- 

 west. 



I was watching him intently, when Jack Wells said, 



