136 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



little air of wind will spring up ; he will get scent 

 of you, and be off in a second. Sometimes a bull 

 will answer at intervals for several hours, will 

 come up to the edge of the open ground, and 

 there stop and cease speaking. You wait, anxiously 

 watching for him all night, and in the morning, 

 when you examine the ground, you find that 

 something had scared him, and that he had 

 silently made off, so silently that his departure 

 was unnoticed. It is marvellous how so great 

 and heavy a creature can move through the woods 

 without making the smallest sound ; but he can 

 do so, and does, to the great confusion of the 

 hunter. 



Sometimes another bull appears upon the scene, 

 and a frightful battle ensues ; or a cow will com- 

 mence calling and rob you of your prey ; or you 

 may get an answer or two in the evening, and 

 then hear nothing for several hours, and go to 

 sleep and awake in the morning to find that the 

 bull had walked calmly up within ten yards of 

 you. Very frequently you may leave camp on a 

 perfectly clear, fine afternoon, when suddenly a 

 change will come on, and you may have to pass 

 a long dreary night on some bare and naked spot 

 of ground, exposed to the pitiless pelting of the 



