Hunting in Many Lands 



some lumbermen had arrived a few days 

 before us and had scared the game away. 

 This starting the quarry is the real difficulty 

 in moose hunting ; for, when once disturbed, 

 the bull leaves with all his kith and kin, so the 

 only chance in these regions is to find him 

 immediately on arrival in a new district and 

 before he comes across your tracks. 



Still working slowly southward, we hunted 

 more back ponds, until at last my turn came 

 on the twenty-seventh hunting day. Let no 

 man say that moose hunting is a picnic. 



We had camped on a little strip of land, 

 between a pond and a long narrow swamp, 

 about 4 o'clock on a beautiful afternoon. 

 Leaving my brother and Jocko to eat dinner 

 in comfort, I started to the head of the 

 swamp. The water was so low that we could 

 barely force the light canoe through the 

 lily-pads. Old moose signs were plenty. A 

 family of moose had evidently been there 

 all summer, but until we reached the upper 

 end we saw no fresh tracks. The sluggish 

 stream we were on drained a shallow lake, 

 and, after a few hard plunges, our canoe 

 floated clear of the mud into the silent 

 waters of a circular pond. It was a basin 



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