A MOOSE-HUNT. 47 



As we were going round a small thicket we heard them 

 start, and almost immediately they broke cover about two 

 hundred yards ahead, going pretty fast. A-ta-ka-koup seemed 

 to be confident of coming up with them, and started on the run 

 after them, going at the rate of perhaps six miles an hour, 

 which he could not have kept up for long, and I followed at 

 about the rate of five miles. I had had so much snow-shoe 

 travelling that I was in good condition, but I was not such an 

 old hand at it as he was, so that he continued to gain on me, 

 and in half an hour was two hundred yards ahead and gaining 

 still, in spite of all I could do. 



I then heard a shot, followed by another, and came up to 

 him standing over a cow, where I left him, as he told me the 

 bull was not far in front, and in a few minutes I saw him, 

 evidently labouring, about a hundred yards off; so I fired, 

 missing with the first barrel and hitting him too far back 

 with the second, on which he increased his speed for a few 

 hundred yards, and then stood at bay. Thinking him weaker 

 than he really was, I went up to within ten yards of him, 

 when down went his head, and in about three tremendous 

 jumps he was almost on me. I fired at his head, and, fortu- 

 nately perhaps, missing that struck him in the neck, dropping 

 him at once not three feet from me. He was a splendid 

 fellow, and had a good head, which A-ta-ka-koup carried to 

 camp for me, where we hung it high up on some boughs, 

 intending to fetch it in the spring. 



On returning to camp, A-ta-ka-koup took the sleigh and 

 dogs and went to fetch some of the cow meat, the bull being 

 too tough to eat. 



As there were a good many lynx-tracks about, A-ta-ka-koup 



