DAYS IN THE WOODS 261 



attention. Now it must be borne in mind that 

 when hunting you never call to anyone like a 

 human being, for to do so might scare away game ; 

 but you grunt like a moose, or, if you prefer it, 

 hoot like an owl, or make any other sound emitted 

 by one of the brute creation. I crept up quickly, 

 and in obedience to John's whisper gave him the 

 moose-caller, and, following the direction of his 

 eyes, saw a small bull moose slowly crossing the 

 barren some four or five hundred yards to our 

 left. At the first sound from John's lips, the 

 moose stopped dead short, and looked round, 

 then moved a few steps towards us and stopped 

 again. We watched him for some time. He was 

 evidently timid, and it seemed doubtful whether 

 he would come up ; and, as it was growing dark, 

 Noel and I started to try and steal round the 

 edge of the wood in order to cut him off before 

 he could get into the timber and cross our tracks. 

 We had not gone a hundred yards before we heard 

 another bull coming up from a different direction 

 through the forest, answering John's call. We 

 could tell by the sound that he was a large one, 

 and that he was coming up rapidly. The small 

 bull heard him also, and stopped. We were now, 

 of a truth, in a dilemma. There was a moose in 



