26o The Wilderness Hunter 



charge does not take place once in a hundred times 

 when the moose is killed by fair still-hunting; and 

 it is altogether exceptional for those who assail them 

 from boats or canoes to be put in jeopardy. Even 

 a cow moose, with her calf, will run if she has the 

 chance; and a rutting bull will do the same. Such 

 a bull when wounded may walk slowly forward, 

 grunting savagely, stamping with his forefeet, and 

 slashing the bushes with his antlers; but, if his 

 antagonist is any distance off, he rarely actually 

 runs at him. Yet there are now and then found 

 moose prone to attack on slight provocation; for 

 these great deer differ as widely as men in courage 

 and ferocity. Occasionally a hunter is charged in 

 the fall when he has lured the game to him by calling, 

 or when he has wounded it after a stalk. In one 

 well-authenticated instance which was brought to 

 my attention, a settler on the left bank of the St. 

 John, in New Brunswick, was tramped to death 

 by a bull moose which he had called to him and 

 wounded. A New Yorker of my acquaintance, 

 Dr. Merrill, was charged under rather peculiar cir 

 cumstances. He stalked and mortally wounded a 

 bull which promptly ran toward him. Between 

 them was a gully in which it disappeared. Imme 

 diately afterward, as he thought, it reappeared on 

 his side of the gully, and with a second shot he 

 dropped it. Walking forward, he found to his 

 astonishment that with his second bullet he had 



