NEAR MIDDLE RIDGE. 139 



mainder of the day we saw two or three stags that had 

 dropped their horns, and it was very obvious that the season 

 was practically at an end, and I therefore decided to rejoin 

 Wynyard after one more day's hunting. 



As that was to be our last day except on the eastward 

 trail we started at daylight. It had been snowing in the 

 night and from time to time there were other slight falls, 

 driven up by a bitter wind. It was already past eleven 

 o'clock when, in a valley at the southern end of Island Pond, 

 we spied three stags and several does. I do not know if 

 these deer had been fired upon by the Gambo shooters, for, 

 although they did not move much, they kept an exceedingly 

 good look-out, and, though presently the two biggest stags 

 lay down, they chose a quite inaccessible position in the 

 centre of a marsh, from which they did not rise till past 

 three o'clock. Had it not been so cold I should have en- 

 joyed the long wait, as the deer were throughout in full view, 

 one of the stags assuming a position I have never seen a 

 caribou take before or since. He lay down on his side, with 

 one horn resting on the snow and the other sticking up to 

 the sky. Finally, when they moved off over the hill, we 

 were glad to take a little exercise to restore our circulations 

 under cover of the ridge before following their tracks in the 

 snow. As these led into a belt of trees we soon came up 

 within sixty yards, and one of the big stags I could not 

 tell which of them, as his head was down was feeding on 

 the far side of the herd almost opposite to me, and I was just 

 about to fire when Jack whispered, " That is not the big 

 fellow." At the same moment a doe saw us, and the next 

 the whole band were in a wild stampede, led by the stag at 

 which I had been aiming and which I now recognised as the 

 one that had lain down in so curious a position. I fired at 

 him and heard the bullet tell, and then, as I was trying to 

 eject the cartridge, the other big stag broke cover almost in 

 front of me. He was so close that, had he not swerved, he 



