92 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 



site hill-side rushed the Deer for cover at the head of the 

 drolce (Newfoundland term for grove) of timber, which 

 commanded almost half a mile down-stream, and for which 

 point Gisborne ran "for all he was worth," while Joe 

 started for the upper end for a chance shot if the Deer was 

 turned from below. 



It was a nip-and-tuck race; for, when Gisborne reached 

 the brook and proceeded upward, the freshly splashed 

 boulders proved that the stag had been turned. Rigid as 

 death, he listened attentively, awaiting Joe's shot— when, 

 without a moment's warning, the alder-bushes waved, and 

 the great stag appeared in mid-air as he cleared the brook 

 at a bound and dashed into the opposite growth; but not 

 until a ping from Gisborne' s rifle had placed a bullet a little 

 behind his shoulder, which landed him, dead as venison, 

 upon his mossy bier. 



A few minutes later Joe waded down. the stream, with a 

 quiet look of exultation in his eye. 



" Me know you git him," he said. " Wolf sit top of hill 

 — watch if he come out — but he dead somewhere. Oh! " he 

 added, " one shot— dead! Now Gisborne' s squaw say, 'All 

 right, Joe.' " 



What a noble brute! and what magnificent antlers— fifty- 

 four points! And the horns are here in Ottawa to prove the 

 correctness of the count. 



Now, however, came the tug of war — the transport of 

 the carcass from the glen to camp. Joe was ill with a 

 sprained back, caused by slipping off a wet boulder; but he 

 nobly bore the head and hide, while Mr. Gisborne staggered 

 along under the weight of the hind quarters in one piece, 

 and, after innumerable resting-spells, ultimately reached the 

 harbor, played out, but elated; and no wonder, his total 

 load, as scaled at a store at Heart' s Content, having been 

 one hundred and eighty pounds. The haunch, which Mr. 

 Gisborne presented to his friend, Sir Alexander Bannerman, 

 Governor of Newfoundland, turned the scale at sixty -four 

 pounds. It was covered all over with a coating of fat two 

 inches in depth. 



