FURTHER DAYS. 245 



following day Ross and Ed saw two moose, one of which 

 Ross killed, the other Ed wounded and lost. Ross's moose 

 head showed a spread of forty-eight inches, and carried a 

 good, even head. 



On the 2nd of October I went out alone and spent a day 

 so full of incident that it is worth describing at length, 

 more especially as it is typical of a favourable day in that 

 region. Snow had fallen during the night, and lay all 

 over the country to the depth of about six inches. This 

 made my walks towards the Look-outs and onwards very 

 interesting, as it was, of course, possible to see exactly 

 what the movements of the deer had been since about one 

 o'clock in the morning. Two large stags had crossed quite 

 near the camp, but as the rest of the party had arranged 

 to hunt the ground to which these passed I did not follow 

 them. About a mile from camp a moose, either a cow or 

 a young bull, had travelled down from the north and gone 

 on into green timber. By the time I had been walking 

 for an hour or so I suddenly saw a big caribou stag moving 

 at a good pace through the brulee. 



From the direction in which he was travelling there 

 appeared to be a good chance of cutting him off near a 

 large maple, the red leaves of which made a beautiful and 

 easily-distinguished mark in the landscape. I hurried to 

 this tree, and had not long to wait before the stag came 

 trotting in a leisurely manner into view and not more than 

 a hundred yards from me. He had a good pair of horns, 

 with two very long and well-developed bays, but both the 

 brows were represented by mere lengthy spikes, and the 

 tops were practically destitute of points. I therefore let 

 him pass in peace and slipped away, crossing the back- 

 trail of the stag, and made my way to a ridge of low barrens 

 and hummocks, over which the walking was very bad, as 

 the snow had drifted into the hollows. Half an hour's 

 floundering brought me to the open highlands where I 



