204 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap, xi 



performance I have never indulged in, the only skill required 

 being such as is supplied by a sharp pair of eyes and ears, in 

 addition to the power of creeping about quietly — in fact the 

 most elementary principles of hunting, and the element of 

 chance existing so strongly that it is merely a matter of 

 "bull-headed luck" if you come across a bull moose with a 

 head measuring 40 inches or 70 inches. I observe that Mr. 

 A. J. Stone, in a long article on the moose, has written as 

 follows: — "The man who has acquired so thorough a 

 knowledge of the habits of the moose as to enable him, 

 unaided, to seek the animal in its native haunts, and by fair 

 stalking bring it to bay, has reached the maximum standard 

 of the American big game hunter." This may be so, but 

 personal experience has taught me that the natives on the 

 Kenai Peninsula are very bad at quickly seeing any animal, 

 and that they have invariably got their eyes on the ground 

 looking for tracks, etc., when often a moose is staring them 

 in the face, probably half hidden by a tree at no great 

 distance away. Therefore, although two pairs of eyes may 

 be better than one, it will be found that the additional man 

 makes more noise than one alone, and I maintain that any 

 intelligent being can master the principles of moose-hunting, 

 as carried on in the Kenai forests, after two days' playing at 

 being his native's marionette, to such an extent that he is 

 fully capable of going and killing his own moose single- 

 handed. Given the element of luck referred to above, it is 

 quite possible that his first beast may be a record head, or 

 nearly so. To know thoroughly the habits of moose is 

 another affair, and a life's study might not suffice some men 

 for this purpose. The only way in which such knowledge 

 can be acquired is by living summer and winter amongst the 

 animals in their native home. How few men there are who 



