216 HUNTING CAMPS. 



an act would have been at variance with the charac- 

 teristics of his race ; for an Indian will walk any distance 

 to recover his goods and chattels. On the other hand, 

 it is possible that the man died in the camp and that 

 his kinsmen had removed his body for burial, leaving 

 his belongings in the place of death, which with many 

 tribes is held to be accursed. Or he may have fallen 

 a victim to some accident while hunting and crept away 

 to the nearest thicket to die in its shelter. However, 

 all this is mere conjecture, and only one fact is certain 

 that anything more lonesome than that deserted 

 camp, with its few poor rotting or rusty implements 

 beside the ashes of the camp fire, can scarcely be 

 imagined. 



We had now been nineteen days without firing a 

 shot, and, with the exception of the stag which crossed 

 the river by Serpentine Hill, without seeing a really 

 fine specimen, so it became necessary to hold a council 

 of war. We decided to split into two parties, Jack and 

 I going into camp near Little Gull River, while Hardy 

 and the two other men " guarded the higher passes of 

 the stream." 



When we had packed Jack's outfit and mine into the 

 small canoe I sent the former to paddle down, while I 

 started to walk along the bank of the river. Hardy 

 accompanied me for a part of the way, and we had 

 hardly turned the first bend when I went over the bank 

 to examine a deer road that showed some fresh tracks. 

 As I returned I heard Jack whistle softly. He was in 

 mid -stream pointing down-river, and there, just beyond 

 the bend and hidden from Hardy by an outcrop of 

 boulders, a large stag was in the act of entering the 

 water from the further side of the river. The instant 



