MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 117 



and flounder helplessly in the deep snows of mid- 

 winter and early spring. 



There are several ways in which the moose is 

 hunted ; some legitimate and some decidedly ille- 

 gitimate. First of all there is moose-calling, which 

 to my mind is the most interesting of all woodland 

 sports. It commences about the beginning of 

 September, and lasts for about six weeks, and 

 consists in imitating the cry of the female moose, 

 and thereby calling up the male. This may sound 

 easy enough to do, especially as the bull at this 

 season of the year loses all his caution, or the 

 greater part of it. But the pastime is surrounded 

 by so many difficulties, that it is really the most 

 precarious of all the methods of pursuing or en- 

 deavouring to outwit the moose ; and it is at the 

 same time the most exciting. I will endeavour to 

 describe the method by giving a slight sketch of 

 the death of a moose in New Brunswick woods 

 last year. 



It was early in October. We had pitched our 

 tents — for at that season of the year the hunter 

 dwells in tents — ^upon a beautiful hardwood ridge, 

 bright with the painted foliage of birch and 

 maple. The weather had been bad for calling, 

 and no one had gone out, though we knew there 



