CAMPING OUT. 301 



quently mentioned in these pages as "The Old Hunter,"* 

 who has presided over it since its inception, has had 

 much to do with the framing of the present laws relating 

 to large game. 



From the almost incredible slaughter of moose in the 

 concluding winter months, consequent, in some seasons, 

 on a continuance of deep encrusted snow in the woods, a 

 restriction of the season in which these animals might 

 formerly be killed (lasting until the last day of February) 

 appeared a most necessary step. Though as true sport 

 moose hunting is seldom pursued in the latter part of the 

 winter, yet the instincts of the Indians, and of the set- 

 tlers generally, appear so ferocious that they seek the 

 opportunity of the animals' most prostrate and defence- 

 less condition to inflict a slaughter the excitement of 

 which apparently temporarily blinds them to reason. Of 

 the Indians it is the old story, corroborated by every 

 traveller from Labrador to Vancouver, from the Prairies 

 to the Pole. With regard to the latter class, it is 

 enough to say that the time when the crust will bear 

 their yelping curs, racing the plunging, bleeding moose 

 through the forest, is looked forward to with the greatest 

 anticipations of pleasure. 



In view of amendment of this lamentable state of 

 aflairs, the regulations concerning the hunting of the elk 

 in the Scandinavian peninsula were referred to. Once, 

 the elk, unprotected, and regarded as a noxious animal, 

 was on the point of extinction in Norway. Government 

 thereupon enacted a stringent law forbidding these animals 

 being shot for a long term of years. This was afterwards 



* Lient.-Colonel William Chearnley, commanding Halifax Volunteer 

 Battalion, late Captain II. M. 8tli Regt. (King's Own). 



