l8o THE SPORTSMAN'S PARADISE; 



many trout, and the photographer has kept our larder 

 amply supplied with ruffed grouse. In this camp our sup- 

 plies have been most plentiful, and I have been rather re- 

 luctantly compelled to think that our guides have very litde 

 anxiety to go forward ; but my wishes in this matter do not 

 harmonize with theirs. I came into this wilderness for the 

 special purpose of hunting the moose, and I am determined 

 to accomplish this object. 



We find many moose-tracks in these woods ; we have 

 spent two days in trailing, but they have thus far eluded 

 us. I am saUsfied, in my own mind, that we are scarcely 

 yet on the border of the Sportsman's Paradise. That 

 there is such a place I am not prepared to deny ; but the 

 all-important question at this moment is, How shall I now 

 reach it? It is feared that the reader, at this moment, is 

 ready to assert that my faith is not well founded. I must, 

 therefore, ask him to keep silence for the time being, while 

 I assure him that I have studied this question very care- 

 fully since my arrival in Canada, and have still an abun- 

 dance of faith. Let the reader carefully review with me 

 the ground-work of my faith before he follows me on my 

 reconnoissance, because I wish him to become an enthusiast, 

 in order that he may enjoy this moose-hunt as I enjoyed 

 it. Therefore I will here confide to him the fact that, prior 

 to my departure for Canada in 1884, I had posidvely 

 learned that Captain Ross and his brother, Wellington, 

 had already killed several moose in this country. The 

 exact number I had not yet learned. After my arrival, I 

 ascertained from the captain that he had killed ten and his 

 brother had killed a somewhat smaller number. I now 



