2 o6 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



in one of two ways : (i) by running the game to earth from sheer 

 exhaustion ; (2) or by a still hunt. 



The straightaway hunt is more dangerous to the man than the 

 moose. Even a fat spinster can outdistance a man with no snow- 

 shoes. And if his perseverance lasts longer than her strength 

 — for though a moose swings out in a long-stepping, swift trot, 

 it is easily tired — the exhausted moose is a moose at bay ; and a 

 moose at bay rears on her hind legs and does defter things with the 

 flattening blow of her fore feet than an exhausted man can do with 

 a gun. The blow of a cleft hoof means something sharply split, 

 wherever that spreading hoof lands. And if the something wriggles 

 on the snow in death-throes, the moose pounds upon it with all 

 four feet till the thing is still. Then she goes on her way with eyes 

 ablaze and every shaggy hair bristling. 



The contest was even and the moose won. 



Apart from the hazard, there is a barbarism about this straight- 

 away chase, which repels the trapper. It usually succeeds by 

 bogging the moose in crusted snow, or a water hole — and then, 

 Indian fashion, a slaughter; and no trapper kills for the sake of 

 killing, for the simple practical reason that his own life depends on 

 the preservation of game. 



A slight snowfall and the wind in his face are ideal conditions 

 for a still hunt. One conceals him. The other carries the man- 

 smell from the game. 



Which way does the newly discovered footprint run ? More 

 flakes are in one hole than the other. He follows the trail till he 

 has an idea of the direction the moose is taking; for the moose 

 runs straightaway, not circling and doubling back on cold tracks 

 like the deer, but marching direct to the objective point, where it 

 turns, circles slightly — a loop at the end of a line — and lies down 

 a little off the trail. When the pursuer, following the cold scent, 

 runs past, the moose gets wind and is off in the opposite direction 

 like a vanishing streak. 



Having ascertained the lie of the land, the trapper leaves the 



