THE MOOSE. 259 



I then commenced firing my rifle as I .advanced, and in a 

 short time heard an answering shot. This was a most de- 

 lightful sensation, and with an elastic step I strode through 

 the forest, and in twenty minutes after, guided by shouts 

 and rifle reports, I found myself shaking hands with my 

 friends. 



A short conversation informed me that I had wandered 

 over ten miles from camp, and that, if I had not moved in 

 a circle, I would probably have been irretrievably lost in 

 the unknown forest, unless I met, by the merest chance, 

 some hunting-party. They had been out searching for me 

 since morning, and had tracked me up to the place w r here I 

 turned to the right the previous night, while chasing the 

 moose. When they reached that point they saw trails of 

 blood, and followed them up for some distance, thinking I 

 had followed the animal directly ; but not finding my foot- 

 steps, they concluded that I had halted there and awaited 

 daylight to return to camp. When I did not return, how- 

 ever, they sallied out again, presuming I had been lost; and 

 knowing how men will act in such a situation, they quar- 

 tered the woods, and used the moose -call, as it could be 

 heard a long distance off. Were they not provided with 

 that simple instrument, it is doubtful if they could have 

 found me, and I might now be in another world. Return- 

 ing to camp, about three miles distant, I made a hearty 

 breakfast of the moufle of a moose and some cakes baked 

 before the fire, and soon felt as jovial as if I had never 

 strayed from it. 



After bringing in the animals that were first killed, Ave 

 started in quest of the cause of my woe, and had little diffi- 

 culty in tracking him by his slots and the drops of blood, 

 until we reached the spot where he had laid down. From 

 that point we followed him easily, and were soon beside 

 him. A hungry panther had been feasting off him, how- 

 ever, while I had been away, for a large portion of the 

 throat and shoulder were eaten off, and scarcely a drop of 

 blood remained in the body. As he was too far from camp 

 to be hauled there, he was skinned, and the carcass left for 



