86 THE DEER FAMILY 



of their ability to call the bulls within easy range. It 

 will not be long, however, before the matter is of no 

 importance whatever, since leading sportsmen, as I 

 have observed, now do not regard the calling of a 

 moose to the gun as good sportsmanship. When a 

 skilful guide calls a huge animal, much larger than a 

 horse, within a few feet of the gun, it is no very diffi- 

 cult matter to hit it. The calling is also done at night, 

 and most sportsmen are opposed to night shooting. 



All sportsmen and writers agree that the moose is 

 able to, and often does, slip away from the still-hunter 

 silently like a rabbit, making little or no noise in going. 

 Mr. Stone says if the moose recognizes that it has been 

 observed it does not endeavor to conceal its move- 

 ments ; but that it can run through woods and all sorts 

 of tangles without so much as snapping a twig. Hunt- 

 ers have been injured by charging moose, deer, and 

 elk, but the animals usually try to get away, and are not 

 dangerous. A wounded animal, when cornered, will 

 fight, and a moose has been known to charge a hunter 

 when not cornered, but he does not do so as often as is 

 generally believed. 



There has been some discussion as to whether a 

 moose will repeatedly charge if he fails to strike his 

 enemy at the first onrush. That he sometimes charges 

 more than once is evidenced by the following story: 

 Mr. Charles Jacobus, while on a canoe-trip in the 

 forests of Lower Canada, with Dr. Stephen Griggs, of 

 Brooklyn, was told by their guide, an experienced 

 trapper and woodsman, of being charged by a moose 

 which he had wounded. 



The guide referred to was returning one day from a 



