CHAPTER V. 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER HUNTING NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 



shooting season of 1904 I had originally intended 

 JL to spend in Canada in the hope of securing a moose, 

 an ambition that I had entertained for a long time. Even- 

 tually I changed my plans for various reasons, the chief 

 among them being the wish to return to Newfoundland 

 for the purpose of hunting in the country which lies in 

 the neighbourhood of Middle Ridge, a region which, I 

 believe, had never been penetrated save by the Indians. 

 It happened that early in 1904 I mentioned this district 

 and the good sport I had enjoyed on its confines to Cap- 

 tain E. G. Wynyard, who wished to accompany me if ever 

 I revisited it. I therefore gave up the idea of moose for 

 the time being and commenced to make arrangements for 

 a return to Newfoundland by buying, through Mr. Henry 

 Blair, of Water Street, St. John's, two excellent canoes. 



I also wrote, through the same admirable agent, to try 

 and engage the same men who had accompanied me in 

 the previous year, and was glad to find that Jack and 

 Frank Wells were available ; but George Arnold had left 

 the island for the summer, having gone with his sons on a 

 cod-fishing venture to the Labrador coast, and we therefore 

 engaged Walter and Sam Dewey, of Glovertown, Alexander 

 Bay. Walter, a man with the excellent quality of keen 

 sight, had several times filled the position of " second 

 guide " to hunting parties, and although he had never 



