PREPARATIONS FOR RETURN. 133 



With the death of the stag which I killed on 

 September 20th my hunting came to an end, 

 for he made the fifth and last caribou stag that I 

 was entitled to kill by the terms of my license. 

 Besides the live stags I was certainly legally 

 entitled to shoot two does, but, of course, as I 

 did not want their meat, I had no wish to 

 avail myself of this privilege. 



The greater part of the meat of the five 

 stags was, I am sorry to say, unavoidably 

 w^asted. We always carried the best of it 

 to camp, and hung it up in the hope that 

 Indians might visit us, but they never did. 

 All we could do, therefore, was to eat as much 

 of it as we could ourselves. 



We brought away with us the hides, all the 

 fat, and as much meat as the canoes would 

 carry when all our other belongings were on 

 board. Two of the hides we sewed together 

 and lashed under the Acme folding canoe, in 

 order to preserve the canvas from damage by 

 friction against the rocks whilst descending 

 the numerous rapids in the Terra Nova 

 River. 



