242 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



will in a single winter often drive the moose 

 completely out of a given district. Both 

 cougar and bear generally reckon on taking 

 the moose unawares, when they jump on it. 

 In one case that came to my knowledge a 

 black bear was killed by a cow moose whose 

 calf he had attacked. 



In the northeast a favorite method of hunt- 

 ing the moose is by " calling " the bulls in the 

 rutting season, at dawn or nightfall ; the 

 caller imitating their cries through a birch- 

 bark trumpet. If the animals are at all wary, 

 this kind of sport can only be carried on in 

 still weather, as the approaching bull always 

 tries to get the wind of the caller. It is also 

 sometimes slain by fire-hunting, from a canoe, 

 as the deer are killed in the Adirondacks. 

 This, however, is but an ignoble sport ; and 

 to kill the animal while it is swimming in a 

 lake is worse. However, there is sometimes 

 a spice of excitement even in these unworthy 

 methods of the chase ; for a truculent moose 

 will do its best, with hoofs and horns, to up- 

 set the boat. 



The true way to kill the noble beast, how- 

 ever, is by fair still-hunting. There is no 

 grander sport than still-hunting the moose, 

 whether in the vast pine and birch forests of 

 the northeast, or among the stupendous moun- 

 tain masses of the Rockies. The moose has 

 wonderfully keen nose and ears, though its 

 eyesight is not remarkable. Most hunters 

 assert that he is the wariest of all game, and 

 the most difficult to kill. I have never been 

 quite satisfied that this was so ; it seems to 

 me that the nature of the ground wherein it 



