MOOSE HUNTING. 89 



hunter will never leave you in the woods in distress ; 

 and should you cut yourself with an axe, meet with a 

 gun accident, or be taken otherwise sick, will carry you 

 himself out of the woods.* Under his guidance we will 

 now introduce the reader to the sport of moose hunting. 



Old Joe Cope, the Indian hunter, is still to the fore \'\ 

 his little legs, in shape resembling the curved handle of 

 pliers, carry him after the moose nearly as trustily as 

 ever. Perhaps his sight and hearing are failing him, and 

 he generally hunts in company with his son Jem as an 

 assistant ; and Jem, being a lusty young Indian, does 

 most of the work in " backing out'^ the moose-meat 

 from the woods. 



" Joe," said I, on meeting the pair one morning late 

 in September, a few falls ago, at the country-market at 

 Halifax, where they were selling a large quantity of 

 moose-meat, Joe's eyes beaming with ferocious satisfaction 



* The following anecclote — a scrap from the note-hook of an old comrade 

 in the woods — is an interesting example of the Indian's reflective powers : — 

 " At length Paul, who is leading, stops, and, turning towards us, points 

 towards a cleared line through the forest. ' A road, a road ! ' and we give 

 three such cheers. It is a logging-road, leading from the settlements into 

 the forest ; but which is the way to the clearings ! If we turn in the wrong 

 direction it will delay us another day, and we have only a little tea left and 

 six small biscuits. It is soon settled ; we turn to the left, and presently 

 find a wisp of hay dropped close to a tree. Now comes out a piece of 

 Indian ' 'cuteness.' Paul has observed that when a tree knocks off a hand- 

 ful of hay from a load, it falls on that side of the tree to which the cart is 

 going : the hay is on our side of the tree, so we are going in the direction 

 whence the cart came. But it might be wild hay, brought in from a 

 natural meadow. They taste and smell it ; it is salt (in this country the 

 farmers salt the meadow hay to keep it, but not the wild hay) : hence this 

 was hay carted from the settlements for the use of oxen employed in haul- 

 ing out lumber. We are, therefore, going in the direction whence the cart 

 came, and towards the settlements." 



t Since this was written, poor Joe has for ever left the hunting grounds 

 of Acadie, having shot his last moose but a few weeks before he rested 

 from a life of singular adventure and toil. Requiescat in pace. 



