MOOSE HUNTING. 87 



which the new hand meets with in moose hunting, and 

 the one which teaches him to lean entirely for assistance 

 upon his Indian guide, is the extreme unfrequency with 

 which an accidental sight of game is obtained in the 

 forest. Moose tracks are perhaps plentiful, also signs of 

 fresh feeding on the bushes, and impressed forms of the 

 animals, where they have rested on the moss, or amongst 

 ferns, but how seldom do we see the animals themselves by 

 chance. Suddenly emerging from thick cover on the edge 

 of an extensive barren occupying several thousand acres, 

 tlie eye of the hunter rapidly scans the open in eager 

 quest of a moving form, but meets with continual disap- 

 pointment. Not a sign of life, perhaps, but the glancing 

 flight of a woodpecker or the croak of a raven. One is 

 prone to believe that the country is deserted by large 

 game. Presently, however, your Indian, who, leaving 

 you to rest on a fallen tree and enjoy a few whiffs of the 

 hunter s solace, makes a cast round for his own satisfac- 

 tion, returns to tell you that there are moose within 

 (possibly) a few hundred yards of you. You discredit 

 it, but are presently induced to believe his assertion 

 when you are shown the freshly-bitten foliage (anyone 

 can soon learn to distinguish between a new-cropped 

 bough and a bite over which a few hours have passed), 

 or, perhaps, the mud stiU eddying in a little pool in 

 which the animal has stepped. You may listen, too, by 

 the hour together for some token of their whereabouts, 

 but hear no sounds but those of the birds or squirrels. 



If there is daylight, and the wind propitious, your 

 guide will probably in half an hour or so point to a 

 black patch seen between tree stems, indicating a portion 

 of the huge body of a moose, unless you have bungled 



