MOOSE-CALLING. 113 



morning passed, and we might come on them at any 

 moment. We now travelled with great caution; any 

 little blunder committed, such as a slight snap caused 

 by stepping on a rotten stick, or grazing a gun-barrel 

 against a tree-stem, was invested with a plausible ap- 

 pearance by the Indian, who would immediately apply 

 the call to his lips, and utter a low grunt, as it were a 

 moose walking through the woods. At last the forest 

 opened ahead, the gloom of the pines gave place to 

 brighter light, and we stood on the edge of the barren 

 sought for. Below us lay the swamp through which we 

 had followed the moose, and we had the satisfaction of 

 seeing, on crossing the stagnant brook which separated it 

 from our present position, the mud still circling where the 

 animals had passed. They had just crossed it before us, 

 and taken to the barren. 



The barren, which was at some elevation above the 

 swampy forest we had recently quitted, sloped from us 

 in an undulating wilderness of tangled brakes and dead 

 trees, whose tall, bleached forms reared themselves like 

 ghosts in the fast approaching twilight. It was quite 

 calm — a delightful evening for " calling " — and we dis- 

 encumbered ourselves of the loads, and sat down in the 

 bushes to smoke and converse in low tones until the 

 moon should rise and mellow the twilight. 



Everything was perfectly still, except the occasional 

 tap of the woodpecker on the decayed trunk of some 

 distant rampike. As the sun sank below the horizon, 

 the gentle breeze gradually diminished, and now not a 

 leaf on the poplar and maple bushes around us flutters. 



" Now, John," I whispered to the Indian, "it is almost 

 time to try your voice. We will make the moose hear 



