OR, THE LAKE LANDS OF CANADA. 



171 



known to him by the firing of a prearranged signal. I 

 took the precaution, however, in this case to break the 

 bushes along my route to the shore, so that I might be able 

 to return to this spot the next morning in company with 

 my guides. The captain now made his appearance, and 

 we returned to camp. 



This day had been cloudy, and there was an occasional 

 sprinkling of rain, whilst during the night there was a 

 pretty heavy fall. I dreamed much during the sleeping 

 hours of the niq-ht of moose and moose-huntine. We 

 arose the following morning soon after daylight. It was still 

 cloudy, but the rain had ceased. We started immediately 

 after breakfast for the scene of my meeting with the moose. 

 The precaution which I had taken on the previous day en- 

 abled me to readily approach the spot. We discovered 

 this morning' that an old tree standinof near where the 

 moose's head had been had received the rifle cartridge. 

 Prior to this meeting with the moose, the question had 

 been frequently discussed around our camp-fire whether it 

 were practical to trail these animals without the assistance 

 of a tracking snow. The captain had firmly maintained 

 that it was impracticable, more especially at this particu- 

 lar season while the ground is covered with newly-fallen 

 leaves, which lie very lightly on the earth-mould in which 

 the impression of the foot is made. The captain, however, 

 informed us that he had never attempted to follow a trail 

 of the moose under these circumstances, but was, neverthe- 

 less, fully assured that it could not be done. The author, 

 on the contrary, stoutly maintained that it was possible, that 

 this fact had been repeatedly demonstrated by other sports- 



