32 THE MOOSE 



business of strangulation that the heavy piece of 

 timber, now thoroughly mixed up in the trees, 

 finished off. 



" Calling," also, the moose cow dwelt on, that 

 system acceptedly installed and held high in honour 

 among sportsmen, who are by its means enabled to 

 get a choice of heads. 



In Alaska the primitive birch-bark horn is not 

 used as a lure to attract the bull moose by imitating 

 the call of the cow, as it is in New Brunswick and 

 the Mic-Mac hunting-grounds. Northern adepts 

 employ, instead of the counterfeit mating cry, the 

 war challenge of the bull, making it cleverly by 

 means of mouth and hands. 



All these cautions the calf weighed up in his wise 

 young way. Never would he answer a challenger 

 until the position of things was thoroughly sifted. 

 A mere call to arms should not allure him. He 

 knew all about it ; forewarned, he was forearmed. 



The cow looked at him pityingly, understanding, 

 as she did, that almost any noise will bring up a 

 moose at the right season. The call comes and 

 cannot be resisted. And the memory of her last 

 mate rushing on to his end came back to her. The 

 sound of wood-chopping attracted him. The bush 



