i 26 Sport and Life. 



measured 53in. in that respect; 5<Din., if well pronged and palmated, may 

 be considered a good head, but 6oin. and over is very rare, especially in 

 these days. 



Leaving Liverpool last August, I arrived at the place where I decided 

 to camp on the 26th of that month. I was on a chain of lakes connected 

 by a brook, whifh in some parts was dead water, and in others so shallow 

 and rocky as to necessitate portaging. We spent the time prior to the 

 rutting season in prospecting the lakes in the vicinity, and the sluggish 

 parts of the brook, looking for open spaces wherein to call, and carefully 

 noting tracks and other signs, which denoted the near presence of the 

 animals we intended to hunt. It was patent that although there was a fair 

 sprinkling of moose in the vicinity, they were by no means plentiful, 

 having been much disturbed of late years by lumbermen, and also killed 

 in the deep-crusted snow, in defiance of the law, by red and white 

 pot-hunters. 



My Indians consisted of a first-rate caller and creeper from the 

 Maritime Provinces, and a local man, who was a good cook and lugger, but 

 a poor hunter, and absolutely ignorant of calling. 



Having spotted on two occasions the fresh tracks of a big bull on the 

 shores of a lake not far off, we tried him on the night of Sept. 5, but, 

 although the animal answered the call, he would not come, as the rutting 

 season had not commenced ; or, as the Indians say : ' he had not started.' 

 Two mornings later my Indian Joe, the caller, brought him up, and I shot 

 him; a fine beast, his horns measured 54|in. across, were beautifully 

 pronged and palmated, and very symmetrical 



For the next three weeks or more the weather was windy, and we never 

 had a single night or morning that was really good for calling ; for to call 

 when there is any wind is worse than useless. The animals come up and 

 smell you, and then good-bye to them, for they at once leave the 

 neighbourhood. 



By Oct. 4 both my men were ill in camp from chills, caught lying out 

 night after night with no fire, in the hopes of the morning turning out still, 

 which it never did. On the 5th it promised to be a first-rate evening, so, 

 leaving the Indians in camp, I went out alone, got into a canoe with gun, 

 rifle, and blanket, paddled across a lake, and. then crossed a narrow strip of 

 land that divided the lake I had just left from another one. I was at the 

 bottom of the lake, which extended over two and a half miles, there was a 

 clear space, where the trees and bank had been cut by lumberers, of about 

 Soyds. long by 5oyds. wide; an old lumber road ran along about looyds. 

 from the water to a camp situated at the further end of the lake, the bank 



