658 
FOREST AND STREAM 
After Caribou On The Barrens Of Newfoundland 
Story of a Trip Which Was Attended by Some Excitement But Ended in Success—Big Game 
Hunting at Its Best 
By “Double Barrel.” 
(Continued from October Forest and Stream.) 
EXT we came upon a small 
marsh in the woods, perhaps 
three hundred yards long and 
one hundred yards broad and at 
the upper end of it were three 
doe caribou and one small stag. 
We got behind some bushes and 
worked up to about seventy-five 
yards from them, then I took out my camera 
hoping for a picture but before I could snap one 
they caught sight of us and all started off on the 
run- They were as wild and shy as deer so I 
suppose they had been hunted previously. 
From here we turned off through the woods 
and soon struck across another little marsh. 1 
was somewhat behind Dan, and when we were 
nearly across I turned to look back and saw a 
stag on the further side just poking his head 
and nose out of the woods. I called to Dan 
and we both crouched down and waited until he 
came into plain view. He had a good head and 
I let him walk out until he was opposite about 
one hundred yards away. Then I shot the first 
barrel into him as he stood and the second as 
he sprang and he fell dead. 
We found both bullet holes behind his shoul¬ 
der not more than three inches apart. He had 
a beautiful and very symmetrical twenty-eight 
point head with two good brow points, sym¬ 
metrical bays and tops. In fact, he was a very 
satisfactory head and I was much pleased al¬ 
though the head was not as large as I had antici¬ 
pated. We at once made a fire and had tea and 
cooked some caribou meat which we had wnli 
us in the pack and then set to work to cut off 
the head and skin. 
In skinning, beside the robe and head, Dan 
also removed the shanks, which was a new trick 
to me. He started about three inches above the 
knee joint of the back leg and skinned the hack 
leg down to the dew claws, slitting down the front 
of the leg and skinning it over the knee joint 
in the back very carefully. When this was taken 
off the bend at the knee joint made a natural 
heel, and, by sewing up the front, these shanks 
made a perfectly fitting pair of moccasins. The 
guides kept them to wear on top of their seal 
boots during the winter and they made an ex¬ 
cellent and very simple device which I had nevei 
seen anywhere else. 
A soft, wet snow had begun to fall. Dan 
stopped to set two fox traps near the carcass. 
I carried the lunch sack, glasses and rifle, while 
Dan had the head on his shoulders. Tt was a 
long, hard pull because of the snow, and we had 
to stop once on the way to build a fire and make 
more tea. 
III. 
When you find your back is aching from the pack. 
As you start to feel a trembling in the knee, 
When you see a mist arise that begins to dim 
your eyes. 
Then its time to bile a kittle of tea. 
Back at the camp we found that Smith had 
taken a short walk with Ned but had not seen 
any caribou. His heels were feeling a little better, 
so he thought he could hunt the next day. That 
night, for the fourth or fifth time, we had the 
Newfoundland national dish for supper. It con¬ 
sists of fried salt pork, cod fish and hard bread, 
boiled together in sort of a general stew. Hard 
bread is soaked for twenty-four hours until it 
becomes thoroughly soft, then is cooked with the 
cod fish and pork. This is called “Bruise” and is 
a thoroughly filling dish and I have no doubt 
would make a hit on a fishing or sealing 
schooner, but, personally, I preferred caribou 
steak. 
The next morning, the 26th, Smith and Dan 
started out for the country where I had shot my 
stag, and Ned and I determined to go over on 
the bare hills, where we had formerly been, 
while Tom and Piney went back for more food 
to the main logging camp and carried out the two 
heads. 
Ned and I tramped all day, but found nothing 
except partridge berries, which we ate, and two 
ptarmigan, which we did not succeed in killing. 
Toward the end of the afternoon, we saw one 
solitary doe and fawn on the marshes, but they 
were very wild and gave us no chance to take 
any pictures. Ned kept repeating that the year 
before all this ground had been filled with cari¬ 
bou, but that now all the caribou had left the 
country. 
On our return, we found that Smith and Dan 
had merely gone down to Wallace’s look-out, a 
low hill, not very far away, from which they 
could overlook a large extent of country. They 
had only seen two or three cows, however, and 
no stags. It was almost dark when Piney and 
Tom returned to camp with fresh supplies, and 
two partridges, which they had shot on the road. 
These made a very satisfying supper, after which 
we decided the next day Ned and I should go 
back on the big marsh, where I had previously 
hunted, and that Dan and Smith should go as 
far as they could toward Millais Lake. 
Our camp, by this time, was very comfortable. 
Tom had put three or four more layers of 
boughs in our tent and Dan had moved his 
bed into it. We also had two caribou skins on 
top c f the floor cloth and had set up drying 
lineand candle sticks, and all the other para¬ 
phernalia of a permanent camp. We read and 
smoked, talked and played cards in the evening, 
and fed the folding stove untold quantities of 
green birch. Smith had named it Frances after 
some mythical lady in his past, because it was en¬ 
tirely beyond human control. It either refused 
to burn at all, or else roasted everybody out. 
This was a most popular joke with the guides, 
and, I think, made us permanent reputations as 
humorists. At least, when we left, I know that 
they had named their two stoves Louise and 
Anna Maria respectively, according to their char¬ 
acteristics. 
Morning broke dark and cold, with a very 
sharp wind. Ned and I started out over the big 
marsh and had gone about three miles when I 
saw the head of a doe sticking out behind some 
trees at a little neck of woods. I called Ned’s 
attention to it and we crossed through the woods 
and crawled behind some little bushes where we 
found three does and a stag feeding. The stag 
was a beautiful creature with a big, white mane 
but his horns were too small to be of any inter¬ 
est. I got out my little camera and took several 
pictures then walked out on the marsh and took 
three or four more, as the caribou started off 
These pictures came out fairly well, but the cari¬ 
bou were bits of white on the plate for we were 
fifty yards away, a distance too great to do any 
distinctive work. These caribou started off on 
the run to leeward but after we had gone about 
a mile we looked up to windward and saw them 
crossing the marsh about two miles ahead. They 
had swung a five mile circle while we were going 
a mile. 
We tramped all day around the edge of the big 
marsh, getting back to camp late without seeing 
any other caribou. Smith and Dan also came 
late that evening, Smith very much used up 
They had gone well over toward Millais Lake 
and although they had seen seventeen caribou 
none of them \vere worth shooting. They had 
come on them all at the extreme limit of their 
trip and none had horns. At this point our hopes 
of further success began to look very black as 
Smith’s heels had now two bunches the size of 
hickory nuts on the tendons and he was so lame 
he could hardly walk. To add to our discour¬ 
agement Dan said he thought there were but few 
caribou in the country and no good stags. 
On consulting with Dan we decided to take the 
floor cloth of our tent and go up about seven 
miles further in toward Millais Lake and put up 
a lean-to there from which one of us could hunt. 
Smith said that he preferred to stay in the main 
camp for the present and rest his feet and that I 
should hunt first. As I had only one more head 
