356 APPENDIX. 



I 



picked in a neighbouring swamp, and, releasing our blankets from 

 their cordings, prepared for supper. Suddenly all was calm ; the 

 wind had gone down, and the western sky was tinged with the 

 gorgeous colouring denoting a moose-caller's delight — a calm and 

 serene night. All at once a cracking of wood was heard away down 

 on our side of the lake, and presently more noises, plainly deter- 

 mining the presence of moose thereabouts. A few minutes of hesi- 

 tation, and I treed Peter to sound the love-note from aloft : and not 

 long after he descried a moose at fully a mile's distance coming to 

 the edge of the forest. ' The margin of the lake on our side had been 

 burnt, and was baiTen of bush or tree except in a few spots. A few 

 persuasive calls brought him out on the barren, from which, how- 

 ever, he soon returned to the cover of the green-woods — a fact, as we 

 all knew, proving him to be either a coward or a beaten moose. We 

 coaxed : he still came on, showing himself occasionally on the 

 barren, though never answering, and at length was espied about 

 three hundred yards off, peering around him and listening, his huge 

 ears extended forwards to the utmost. We thought that he saw us, 

 but he had cunning folks to deal with ; we did not move or call. 

 Down he came, making directly for us, now speaking for the first 

 time. I was lying in his route, and, when distant about fifteen 

 yards, I bowled over one of the finest and most cautious of his 

 species I had ever met with. He was cast and butchered before the 

 twilight faded. 



" We supped, and that night lay replete ; but my sleep not being 

 of such a dead nature as that of my faithful followers, the crashings 

 of trees and the bellowings of moose emanating from the same direc- 

 tion as that whence came the fallen monarch, struck frequently on 

 my ears. At cock-crow I woke up the sleeping aborigines, and, 

 severe as had been the cold of the past night, we listened long and 

 with intense interest to the distant sounds, not the usual noise of the 

 cow moose at this season, but a sort of unearthly roaring. 



" We called, and presently observed two moose leave the woods, 

 and approach us on the barrens. When about five hundred yards 

 distant from us we lost sight of them in the alder bushes which grew 

 thickly on the banks of a small brook flowing into the lake. Past 

 this spot they would not come : we did not advance, as we deter- 

 mined to kill no more moose on that excursion. Our object was 

 simply to watch ; I particularly wanted to ascertain from which 

 animal the snorting and fierce bellowing came. We had perceived 

 that they were male and female. They stopped in the alders for 

 some fifteen minutes or so making a great row, breaking sticks and 

 pawing the water in swamp holes with a loud splashing. At length 



