MOOSE-CALLING. 107 



stiff with cold and from lying so long and motionless in 

 the damp bushes, at last gives it up, and retires to his 

 camp. Should there be the slightest wind, moose will 

 always take advantage of it in coming up to the caller, 

 and endeavour to get his scent. The capacious nostrils 

 of the moose, up which a man can thrust his arm, show 

 the fine powers of that organ ; and should the hunter 

 have crossed the barren or the forest intervening betwixt 

 him and the approaching bull at any time during the 

 day, unless heavy rain has occurred and obliterated the 

 smell of his track, the game is up ; not another sound is 

 heard from the moose, who at once beats a retreat, and so 

 noiselessly, that the hunter often believes him to be still 

 standing, quietly listening, when, in fact, he is in full 

 retreat, and miles away. In districts where moose are 

 very numerous, a number of bulls will reply to the call at 

 the same time from different parts of the surrounding 

 woods ; and in such cases it becomes, as the Americans 

 express it, '* a regular jam ;" they fear one another; and, 

 unless one of them is a real old 'un, and cares for nobody, 

 cannot be induced to come out boldly, though they do 

 sometimes try to cheat one another, and sneak round the 

 edge of the woods very quietly. 



Your patriarch moose, however, scorns a score of rivals, 

 and goes in for a fight on every fitting occasion ; indeed, 

 you have only to approach him when with his partner in 

 the thick swamp, and, cracking a bough or two, put the 

 call to your lips and utter the challenge-note of a bull. 

 With mad fury he leaves his mate and crashes through 

 the forest towards you, and then — shoot him, or else 

 stand clear. I have known this plan to be successfully 

 carried out when moose have been started, and are in full 



