RETURN JOURNEY TO OTTAWA RIVER 141 



and bear; and these animals were here so wild that it 

 was actually easier to track them down in the well settled 

 parts of Canada than in this spot, where the trappers and 

 Indians had terrified them out of their wits. This is not 

 an exaggeration, for the very bears fled as soon as they 

 perceived us ; and easy of approach as they usually are, 

 we could not get a shot at one of the six or seven we 

 saw during the voyage from Fort Severn to Albany. 

 And not more than five deer in all could be killed, badly 

 as we were in want of meat. Moose was seen, but could 

 not be approached. I tried to shoot one at a range of 

 about five hundred yards, but, like the boy who fired at 

 a sparrow, I had no better evidence that I had hit it 

 than seeing it wag its tail, which it did at a rate that 

 precluded the chance of a second shot. Once only did I 

 come well within range of a moose, and then it was a cow 

 which undoubtedly risked herself to protect her newly 

 born calf. The little thing seemed to be scarcely more 

 than a day old, and the cow faced me in a most deter- 

 mined manner, pawing the ground and making a sort of 

 snuffling or blowing sound, indicative, I suppose, of her 

 anger. The calf could only just toddle along, and I 

 cannot say that it was in any way pretty. It gave me 

 the idea of being nearly all head and legs. The cow kept 

 between it and me, but it moved away so slowly that I 

 had a thoroughly good look at it and its mother. I am 

 sure that it was not many hours old, and therefore it 

 must have been born close at hand. The spot was a 

 swamp densely overgrown with tall bushes, which were 

 covered with thorns long and strong as pins. Notwith- 

 standing the thorDS, I have seen moose, in another part 

 of the country, browsing on similar bushes. 



The moose can be -very formidable when it makes up 

 its mind to fight. Cows will always stand by their calves 

 to the last. They rear on their hind-legs like a horse, 

 striking downwards with their fore-hoofs, which cut like 

 an axe. Indians say they sometimes thus kill several of 



