246 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



preached too near, would often turn to bay 

 and make charge after charge in the most 

 resolute manner, so that they had to be 

 approached with some caution. 



Under ordinary conditions, however, there 

 is very little danger, indeed, of a moose charg- 

 ing. A charge does not take place once in a 

 hundred times when the moose is killed by 

 fair still-hunting; and it is altogether excep- 

 tional 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. Johns, 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 circumstances. 

 He stalked and mortally wounded a bull 

 which promptly ran towards him. Between 

 them was a gully in which it disappeared. 

 Immediately afterwards, as he thought, it 

 reappeared on his side of the gully, and with 



