FOREST SPORTS. 207 



in the aim, or whose rifle misses fire at that crisis. A bull 

 Moose, seventeen or eighteen hands in height, with antlers of 

 six feet spread, and hoofs as big as an Ox's, the edges of which 

 cut like a sabre, and which he can handle as deftly as a prize- 

 fighter, is anything but a pleasant customer at close quarters. 



Sometimes two or three bulls will come together, and fight 

 out a forest toumay in the presence of the hunters ; and the 

 grandeur of such a scene, witnessed by the pale moonlight, in 

 the depth of the untrodden forest, must be exciting and majes- 

 tical in the extreme. 



A tilt of this sort has been so graphically and characteristically 

 described by the gentleman to whom I have referred before, 

 Mr. Barton Wallop, in the eleventh volume of the Turf Regis- 

 ter, that I cannot resist the temptation of extracting it for the 

 entertainment and instruction of those of my readers, who do 

 not possess that once excellent, but now, alas ! defunct, peri- 

 odical. 



" We reached Adella's wigwam," says he, "just as the sun 

 was taking his last peep at us over the western mountains, and 

 thoug'h we had walked some eighteen miles through a thickly 

 wooded country, we agreed after supper to take a shy at the 

 Moose. 



" ' No time like the present,' said Tom, — ' we have a lovely 

 night, the harvest moon is at her full, and I am too anxious to 

 sleep. My soul's in arms ! — shoulder blunderbuss ! — each man 

 to his blanket ! his share of lush and grub ! — are you ready, 

 gentlemen % — march!' — and off we went. 



" The sharp October air came chilling upon us as we strode 

 forth, and made the exercise agreeable. Howard had pleased 

 to this moment to keep me in blessed ignorance, and I began to 

 think we were on rather a wild expedition. 



" ' In the name of our great Nimrod !' said I, ' do, like a good 

 fellow, give me some little idea what we are to do, and how we 

 are to shoot Moose at this hour of the night.' 



" ' There you rather puzzle me,' replied Howard : ' I am 

 quite as much in the dark as yourself, never having before tried 



