NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 113 



gone on a protracted expedition into the interior, was 

 nevertheless well used to camp life and proficient in find- 

 ing his way, packing, and other tasks, which make a capable 

 woodsman. The brother, Sam, was some years younger, 

 in fact little more than a youth. 



On the ist of October Captain Wynyard and I left 

 England on the Allan liner Carthaginian, and after a fair 

 passage arrived in St. John's, where we hurried through 

 the necessary preparations, and in the early morning of 

 the I4th the Newfoundland express put us down at Terra 

 Nova, where our men were waiting for us. At this place 

 I found, also, an old schoolfellow, Mr. I. H. Simon, in 

 camp, he having, on my recommendation, employed Jack 

 and Frank Wells for the earlier or September season. 

 Simon, though he had seen very few deer, not more, if I 

 remember rightly, than five shootable stags, had neverthe- 

 less killed three good heads, the best being a very heavy 

 one. 



He gave us the news that a party of American hunters 

 encamped close by were going to hunt what is known as 

 the "middle country/' a district lying to the east and 

 south of Island Pond. The leader of this party had just 

 returned from Nova Scotia, where he had been after moose. 

 On hearing that these gentlemen intended to hunt the 

 " middle country " we were well content, as although we 

 purposed ultimately to cross towards Middle Ridge, yet 

 the ground between us and that tract had been so full of 

 caribou in the previous November that I should have 

 been sorry to share it with any other hunters. 



The next day we put all our outfit aboard two flats and 

 the canoe, and started up the lake under a downpour of 

 heavy rain. Very soon the wind rose to such strength as 

 to render the crossing of Terra Nova Lake in our deeply- 

 laden craft a matter of question. At last we decided to 

 camp and spend the remainder of the day in going through 



