542 



UNGULATA. 



sun then melts the snow on the surface, and the nights being frosty form 

 a crust which greatly impedes the animal's progress. It is necessary for 

 the hunter to have two or three small curs that can run upon the snow 

 without breaking the crust ; their use is to annoy the Moose by barking 

 at its heels. The males when thus pressed stop, and the hunter can 

 come up and dispatch them while their attention is thus engaged. 

 Another method of hunting is described by Audubon: " In September 

 two persons in a canoe paddle by moonlight along the shore of the lake, 

 imitating the call of the male. He answers the call, and rushes down to 

 meet his rival. The man in the bow of the canoe fires ; if the animal is 

 only wounded he makes for the shore, and can be tracked by his blood 

 to the place where he has lain down, and where he is generally found 

 unable to proceed further." Sometimes hunters find out the beaten 

 tracks of the Moose leading to some spring, and bend down a sapling 

 with a strong noose over his path. If his branching antlers pass through 

 the dangling snare, he makes a struggle which disengages the rope hold- 

 ing down the sapling. It springs uj), and the Moose is strangled. At 

 other times they are " pitted," but their legs are so long that this method 

 of securing them seldom succeeds. The skill of a mo(ise-hunter is mostly 

 tried in the winter; he must track the creature by its footmarks in the 

 snow, keeping always to the leeward of the chase. The difficulty of ap- 

 proach is increased by a habit which the Moose has of making dailv a 

 sharp turn in its route ; the hunter therefore forms his judgment, from 

 the appearance of the country, of the direction it is likely to have taken. 

 When he has discovered by the footmarks and other signs that he is near 

 the chase, he approaches cautiously ; if he gets close without being seen, 

 be breaks a small twig, which noise alarms the animal. It starts up, 

 stops, and offers a fair mark to the hunter. The method of "calling" is 

 efficacious in the rutting season. A sportsman writes of it as follows : 

 " Calling is the most fascinating, disappointing, exciting of all sports. 

 You may be lucky at once, and kill your Moose the first night you go 

 out, perhaps at the very first call you make. You may be weeks and 

 weeks, perhaps the whole calling season, without getting a shot. Moose 

 calling is simple enough in theory ; in practice it is immensely difficult of 

 application. It consists in imitating the cry of the animal with a hollow 

 cone made of birch-bark, and iiideavoring by this means to call up a 

 Moose near enough to get a shot at him by moonlight, or in the early 

 morning. He will come straight up to you, within a few yards — walk 



