154 NOVA SCOTIA. 



as the snow gets deeper, until at last the " yard " is only 

 about an acre or two in extent. One great difficulty in 

 creeping moose is that, whereas the tracks one is hunting 

 are going in one direction, the hunter cannot be certain 

 that the moose may not have doubled round and got his 

 wind ; for this reason the Indian, when well to leeward of 

 the yard, quarters his ground against wind much as a well- 

 trained pointer quarters a stubble field. Moose lie down 

 invariably to leeward of their yard, so that anyone coming 

 on their tracks where they have been feeding is at once 

 detected. Although they rely chiefly on their noses for 

 protection, their great ears, which resemble a donkey's, are 

 always on the alert. When the wind is howling through 

 the tree tops, and the trees are rustling and groaning 

 as they are swayed backwards and forwards, let the hunter 

 tread on a rotten stick, and the moose will at once detect 

 it, distinguish it from the other sounds, and be off. As I 

 said before, moose are well able to take care of themselves 

 except for a short time at the close of the winter, when 

 the snow is deep and the crust sufficiently hard to give 

 good footing on the surface. 



I shall never forget my first introduction to moose 

 hunting. It seems but yesterday that I sat on a fallen 

 tree in a narrow neck of land that divides two lakes in the 

 Ship Harbour country not fifty miles from Halifax. I was 

 then new to large game, but Peter Joe, a six-foot Micmac, 

 and the best moose hunter I have ever seen, had sworn to 

 show me a moose within forty yards, "suppose you not 

 break too many sticks." Two days I toiled in the wake 

 of this man of steel and whalebone, till every joint in my 

 body ached. We started heaps of moose out of their 



