HUNTING THE WHITE CARIBOU. 



429 



small bunch of caribou about a mile away. 

 We found ^t an easy matter to get within 

 50 yards of a cow and a calf, and 2 shots 

 laid those out. 



I then had all the game I wanted, and it 

 was the work of but a few minutes to dress 

 these 2, hang up their heads and skins and 

 to go back and cut off the head of the big 

 buck. The males are not good to eat at 

 that time of the year, but we saved the 

 meat of the doe and fawn. 



In the afternoon Mr. Seaman and 

 George started out together, and had 

 walked but about 2 miles when George 

 sighted a band of 47 caribou in a small 

 park between 2 of the groves. George, by 

 his skillful manoeuvering, landed Mr. Sea- 

 man within 40 yards of this bunch, when 

 the latter easily and rapidly killed his 3 — 2 

 bucks and a doe. This completed our 

 day's work. 



The law of Newfoundland allows each 

 hunter who takes out a $40 license to kill 

 3 caribou. If he takes a $60 license he may 

 kill 5. and on an $80 license 7. We had no 

 wish for more than 3, and made good use 

 of these. The meat of the 2 cows and the 

 calf was carried into camp, hung up there, 

 and finally taken to the farm. 



These Newfoundland marshes are a curi- 

 osity in nature. The country is underlaid 

 with granite but a few feet below the sur- 

 face, and decaying vegetation has formed 

 peat beds over this, which are covered with 

 moss, weeds and small shrubs. This en- 

 tire formation is like a sponge and is full 

 of water during at least 8 months of the 

 year. Throughout the other 4 months it 

 is frozen solid, and covered with 3 to 4 

 feet of snow. The surface is broken into 

 what are known as bogs and "mashes," or 

 soft, miry spots. In many places you sink 

 to your knees and in others to your waist, 

 unless you select the knobs to walk on. 

 This traveling is exceedingly tedious and 

 laborious to a tenderfoot ; yet our guides 

 would on occasion run across these marshes 

 as fast as a caribou could trot. 



There are water holes at frequent inter- 

 vals on the marshes, some of which seem 

 to have no bottom. They vary in size from 

 6 feet to 50 feet in width, some of them 

 being round, and others oblong. The banks 

 or walls are abrupt, and the water as clear 

 as crystal ; yet we could see no bottom. I 

 had *no line with me, but am sure some of 

 them must be at least 50 feet deep. I 

 should like to know the result of a geolog- 

 ical survey of that country, and have writ- 

 ten to the official geologist at St. Johns, 

 asking if any such has been made. 



This marsh is, I am told, only a counter- 

 part of many that are found elsewhere on 

 the island, some of them larger than this 

 one. Between these marshes are ranges of 

 liills or mountains, rising at some points to 



PROSrECTINO FOR GAME. 



2,000 feet in height. These air also of 



granite formation, and there air big bog - 



