XI A WAV TO THE MOOSE-GROUND 203 



in many places an arduous and tiring business. On the other 

 hand the undergrowth of low willow bushes had grown up in 

 dense masses, thereby affording excellent feeding for moose 

 on the young shoots which they love so well. In places 

 these bushes were so dense that to force a passage through 

 them without making considerable noise was an impossibility. 

 Moose-tracks were fresh and plentiful all along the trail and 

 around the camp, and every few yards we came upon fresh 

 beds beaten down in the long grass where they had been 

 lying down. Towards evening we heard a shot some distance 

 from camp, and as Glyn had been working his way through 

 the forest without following the trail, we decided to send a 

 native on to a small knoll behind the camp, there to fire a 

 signal shot, since it was now so nearly dark that we estimated 

 Glyn had fired a signal to show that he was unable to find the 

 position of our new camp, which Little had tried to explain to 

 him before leaving the other camp in the morning. This 

 surmise turned out to be correct, as shortly afterwards Glyn 

 arrived calling the little lakes in the neighbourhood all kinds 

 of strange names, and declaring that he had visited any 

 number of them, all answering to the description which Little 

 gave of the one where our camp was pitched. He had seen 

 one young bull moose, but its horns were so small that he 

 would not shoot it, our fixed intention being to shoot at 

 nothing unless we estimated the head as being 60 inches 

 at least. 



Our plan of hunting was to go out early in the morning 

 and work a big extent of country in different directions, 

 always walking until we got the wind in our faces and then 

 going straight forward, making as little noise as possible, 

 and keeping a sharp look-out ahead and on both sides as we 

 went. A more monotonous, uninteresting, and often tiring 



