A MOOSE HUNT ON SNOW-SHOES 133 



tongue. ' Bang ' starts straight as an arrow through the thick 

 underbush and is followed by the others, while the forest echoes 

 merrily to their cries. It is evident, however, that the moose 

 has had a good start and is well away from the dogs ; also that 

 he is a strong and cunning quarry by the giant stride and by the 

 trail leading wherever the crust is less sharp to the legs through the 

 soft evergreen woods. 



Fainter and fainter the cries of the dogs fall on the ear. The 

 hunters know that a chase of many miles lies before them, and, 

 recovering from their attempt a futile spurt, settle down to a steady 



DEATH OK THE MOOSE BULL. 



The moose soon enters a dense forest of black spruce where the 

 going becomes heavy for the men. For a full hour he baffles his 

 pursuers in this advantageous cover, but at length they push him 

 into the open. Here little thickets dot an undulating wilderness 

 of rocks and stumps, broken also by dense groves of alders fringing 

 the windings of a sluggish brook. At a spot where the brook emerges 

 from its sheathing of ice, and runs clear for some distance through 

 a grove of hemlocks and pines, the wary deer bounds from the 

 bank into mid-stream and travels in the water in order to obliterate 

 his tracks. Now dogs and hunters divide into two companies, 

 some running up stream, some down, until once more they pick 



ii , -i 



