NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 129 



soil where grass and low shrubs were growing. To the north- 

 west lay a huge marsh, in the centre of which a doe caribou 

 with a comparatively large pair of horns was feeding. The 

 sun had come out deliciously warm, so that Wells and I 

 lay down upon the top of the rock and gave ourselves up 

 to a desultory consideration of the big doe's movements. 

 We must have been there half an hour before Wells sud- 

 denly said, " Look at the big stag. That is a brute/' This 

 again is one of the top notes of Wells' vocabulary of appreci- 

 ation. I looked up just in time to see a large stag in the 

 act of slowly rising from a depression fringed about with a 

 growth of young spruce, where the nature of the ground had 

 hidden him completely from our view. There was no need to 

 take the telescope, as even at the distance which divided us 

 it was plain that his horns were broad and heavy. Whether 

 we should ever have a closer view of him was a question much 

 more open to doubt, as he was standing in the very centre 

 of the marsh and the wind was exceedingly unfavourable. 

 There was but one thing for it, and that was to approach 

 him from the farther side. 



The surface of the country in most parts of Newfound- 

 land, and more particularly among the bogs and marshes, 

 is peculiarly ill-adapted to running, but as both deer seemed 

 uneasy we endeavoured to make our circle at the highest 

 possible speed. Certainly we covered our two miles round 

 in fair time, and reaching the other side of the marsh we 

 flung ourselves down for a moment's rest.f On rising I 

 found to my disgust that the wind had veered, and in order 

 to make our approach we were forced to retrace our steps 

 almost to the point from which we had started. Meantime, 

 however, the doe had lain down, and the stag was feeding 

 some two hundred yards behind her. Fortunately the two 

 were nearly in a line with a long, low bank of moss which 

 gave us a little shelter. The distance to the deer was fully 

 half a mile, every inch of which would have to be covered 



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