130 HUNTING CAMPS. 



by crawling. At length we arrived at the very limit of the 

 little bank of moss and found ourselves confronted by a 

 large bog-hole that lay almost flush with the surface of the 

 marsh. As we paused here the stag approached the doe 

 and prodded her a couple of times with his horns. She at 

 once rose and ran about a hundred yards in our direction, 

 when she slowed to a walk. It was perfectly clear that if 

 she held upon her course she must soon come upon our tracks 

 by the flat rock, when she would at once make off, taking 

 the stag with her. We were therefore obliged to attempt 

 the open stalk. During its course the rifle as well as our- 

 selves became covered with black slime, and I was sorry I 

 had not that morning brought the case ; but in a country 

 which is broken up by woods to a very great extent, as in 

 Newfoundland, it is impossible to carry the rifle in its cover 

 without risking the loss of an occasional quick shot. So by 

 dint of tying up the action of the Mannlicher in a pocket- 

 handkerchief I attempted to prevent any untoward jam- 

 ming accident. Luckily I was clad in brown clothes, which 

 harmonised with the colour of the marsh, but Wells' dark 

 coat was at times so much in evidence that I was about 

 to continue the stalk alone, when the doe obviously made 

 us out and sounded a warning. The stag ran up beside 

 her and stared in our direction ; then, as caribou some- 

 times will, he circled round at a trot in order to get our 

 wind. This brought him at one point to within about two 

 hundred yar^s, on which I threw the foresight upon his 

 chest as he turned, and fired. He gave a couple of bounds 

 and went off in a cloud of marsh water. Although I had 

 heard the first bullet strike, I was about to fire a second shot, 

 when he fell head over heels into a bog-hole, where little but 

 his antlers and one hind hoof were showing above the mud 

 by the time we ijan up. It was necessary to make a little 

 bridge of logs to the body before we were able to touch the 

 trophy, which turned out to be rather past its prime. Never- 



