PREFACE. 13 



I found that caribou hunting was almost entirely 

 confined to shooting these animals from 

 ambushes, as they passed southwards across 

 the railwaj^ on migration to their winter feed- 

 ing grounds. This form of sport had no 

 attraction whatever for me, and I, therefore, left 

 the railway and made a little trip southwards 

 to St. John's Pond. 



On this trip I was not very successful in 

 finding caribou, but I convinced myself that 

 considerable numbers of these animals never 

 went north across the railway line in the 

 spring, but remained the whole year round in 

 the centre of the island. I saw, too, that the only 

 way to get to this country would be by canoe 

 up one of the shallow rocky rivers which take 

 their rise in the interior of the island. 



At that time there was not a canoe to be had 

 anywhere in Newfoundland — only heavy boats 

 with which it was impossible to get far up an}'- 

 of the smaller rivers. So in 1901 I imported a 

 sixteen-foot bass wood canoe from Canada, and 

 a canvas folding canoe from America, and with 

 their help reached St. John's Pond without 



