FOREWORD. 



IT is some years now since I first made the acquaint- 

 ance of Mr. Hesketh Prichard, who had then only just 

 returned from his great journey through the unexplored 

 wilds of Patagonia, a really remarkable achievement 

 for so young a man. At that time Mr. Prichard was 

 perhaps better known to his fellow-countrymen as a first- 

 class cricketer and joint author with his mother of many 

 popular works of fiction than as an explorer and hunter, 

 and it was as a cricketer that I first came to know 

 him at all intimately, for he was good enough during 

 several successive seasons to bring down a team to 

 play against the village eleven of which I was, and 

 indeed still am, the President. In the intervals of our 

 cricket, we talked big game, and appraised the worth 

 of the caribou and moose heads in my collection, which 

 I had then recently brought from Newfoundland and 

 the Yukon Territory of Canada, and Mr. Prichard's 

 young enthusiasm, whether for cricket or big-game 

 hunting, always did me good, and it is this same quality 

 in the pages of the book, for which these few lines will 

 serve as an introduction, which has given them a charm 

 for me which I do not always find in accounts of shoot- 

 ing trips. I have read every chapter in this book with 

 very great interest. Those on caribou hunting in 

 Newfoundland have appealed to me very strongly, 



