A CAPRICIOUS BEAST 67 



caller returned to their camp and slept until daylight. 

 They were soon up and paddling their canoe to the 

 place of last night's seance. They approached the 

 spot cautiously and saw plenty of moose tracks along 

 the water's edge, but nothing of the animals that made 

 them. The youth, however, took up his moose horn, 

 gave a call, and almost instantly came an answer, and 

 with it a sight that made his eyes bulge with wonder. 

 A rush, and a cracking through the alders, and then, 

 not one, but three big bulls stepped quickly into view, 

 gazing inquisitively at the canoe and its contents. 

 The sportsman brought his rifle to his shoulder and 

 picking out the biggest moose of the three for his aim, 

 banged away at him, but — well, the youth declares 

 that any man who couldn't hit one bull in a three-ply 

 bunch, in broad daylight, and not more than forty 

 yards away, should swap his rifle for a gatling gun. 

 The trio had escaped, unharmed. 



Now the point to which I wish to draw attention is 

 not the somewhat queer anomaly that a " sport " 

 should be guilty of missing the big head of a bull at 

 forty yards, but to the fact that three male moose 

 were bunched together in the mating season, and in a 

 sociable way, with 



No leer of battle in their eye ; 



No olash of antlers in their thought. 



Speaking of the bull-moose's eccentricities, the cow, 



