DEATH OF THE MOOSE COW 71 



river, when the calf, with a hobble of strong rope 

 attached to his right fore-leg and his back left, was 

 permitted to browse among the alders and low- 

 growing cotton woods, the while the men foraged 

 round for anything they could shoot in the way ot 

 waterfowl for the pot. A¥hat was left of the 

 carcass of the cow was not further trenched upon. 

 Exposed to the rarified air, with its touch of frost, 

 the flesh was undergoing the initial process of 

 "jerking," or drying, in readiness for winter 

 shortage. 



At first the calf would not eat, his intense long- 

 ing for freedom and his mother set up a kind of 

 nausea which turned him from feeding. The dogs, 

 too, filled him with terror, so that he hardly dared 

 move. Then keen hunger made him forget all 

 save that he must ease the gnawing and ever- 

 present pain which gave him such acute physical 

 discomfort. On the second evening he fed to all 

 appearances contentedly enough. Sometimes as 

 he attempted to straddle the bushes in order to 

 bring down some tempting flowering top within 

 reach of his muzzle, he forgot he was a prisoner, 

 and that he would never roam the forest again, its 

 free burgher. Then the sight of the camp fire and 



