A NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU-HUNT 



of the herds scattered along the tracks for many miles. At 

 the comfortable hotel at Grand Lake I found that my friend 

 Howe, who had preceded me by several days, had already 

 started for the site of our proposed camp on Birchy Lake, 

 forty-four miles up winding Sandy River. He had taken a 

 guide and cook, leaving the remaining guide, Will Webb, to 

 conduct me. 



I had barely fallen asleep when I was awakened and in- 

 formed that a heavy wind w^as rising on Grand Lake, and that 

 I had better prepare to start at once, as we were obliged to 

 row our small boat four miles down the shores before reaching 

 the mouth of Sandy River. Grand Lake, which is the largest 

 lake on the island, sixty-five miles in length and containing an 

 island twenty-five miles long, is naturally the scene of some 

 very violent storms, and we breathed a sigh of relief when 

 we had at last fought our way to the mouth of the river. We 

 rowed steadily against the sluggish current of the stream as 

 long as daylight lasted, then camped on the bank below a series 

 of swift rapids. The entire next morning we spent in poling 

 and rowing through almost continuous rapids, arriving at 

 Sandy Lake about noon. Here we cut a dead spruce for a 

 mast, spread a blanket for a sail, and made a rapid voyage 

 across an end of the lake, where w^e again found ourselves 

 fighting against the current of the river. 



On the soft banks of this portion of the river we commenced 

 to notice where bands of caribou had been crossing the stream 

 on their migration to the south of the island. The stream was 

 alive with large salmon, which we could see quite plainly in the 

 clear, shallow water, while in the numerous small lakes w^e 

 occasionally saw the round, glistening head of the harbor seal. 

 Back from low, bushy ridges, covered with dead, white tree- 

 trunks and miles of water-soaked barrens, there were black and 

 forbidding mountains rising on both sides of the winding 

 stream. Toward evening we rowed through several long, 

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