104 



SPORT INDEED 



We had some eight miles to paddle up the river be- 

 fore reaching the road that led to the camp, and dur- 

 ing the trip the " big fellow " was the main topic of 

 our talk. The guide described his enormous tracks, 

 and told of the many places where they were seen. 

 There could be no mistake, for the foot of no ordinary 

 moose would fit them. The shores of many lakes, the 

 dead-waters and the soft places in old roads all bore 

 evidence that he must have been a great stroller, a 

 tramp, the "Weary Willie" of his tribe. All this 

 tramping was, of course, done in his search of some 

 fair one that would listen to his tale of love. Whether 

 he found her or whether the " fair ones " all preferred 

 the fate of a young bull's slave to that of an old one's 

 darling is a question whose answer I will leave to 

 zoological wise-heads. 



On the river we met my son and his guide. The 

 former had killed a couple of bears a few hours be- 

 fore, and was full of bear-talk rather than moose-talk. 

 But he did take time to corroborate all the marvelous 

 stories of the " big fellow " and his tracks. On our 

 way we passed a lake, reported to be one of his 

 haunts, and we ^topped to look for a trace of him. 

 Tracks we found indeed, but I thought they were not 

 made by the fellow we were after. They seemed too 

 long and the hoofs spread too far apart. Moreover, 

 the animal's dew-claws had made a plain impression in 

 the mud, therefore I presumed it to be the footprint of 



