108 RECENT HUNTING TRIPS. 



Finally we gave up all hope of getting up to 

 the stag by tracking it, and spent a couple of 

 hours in quartering the dense forest in every 

 direction in front and on each side in the hope 

 of finding it, but this plan also met with no 

 success, and at length we returned to the 

 canoes empty-handed. 



I do not think that this caribou stag carried 

 a very fine head, though, as well as I could judge 

 of it in the mist, it was a very fairly good one ; 

 but apart altogether from the value of its head 

 as a trophy we wanted the animal badly for the 

 sake of its meat, and above all I felt intense 

 chagrin and mortification at the thought that 

 I had mortally woimded a fine animal, whose 

 death would profit no one. However, this is 

 the only mistake of the kind that I have made 

 in two expeditions after caribou. 



When we again reached the river the mist 

 had entirely cleared off, but the clouds were 

 now coming up from the south-west, and we 

 had no sooner re-embarked in the canoes than 

 it conmienced to rain heavily, and never left off 

 again till after sundown. We therefore went 



