XI AWAY TO THE MOOSE-GROUND ,217 



plenty left, and that as long as the cows remained there, so 

 long would the big bulls come in search of them. 



On the morning of September 20 I took both the natives, 

 Pitka and Ivan, and made tracks for a high hill some six or 

 seven miles from camp which I had observed some days before, 

 and from the summit of which a good view of the surrounding 

 ground could be obtained. My plan was to vary the mono- 

 tony of wandering aimlessly through the dense brush and 

 trees, by spending a few hours watching from the top of the 

 hill. Pitka, who was now thoroughly disgusted, and swore he 

 would never come hunting another season in that district, was 

 ready to adopt any new method. Arrived on the hill, one 

 hour's waiting produced no result, except the filling and 

 lighting of my pipe at the end of the time, as I was unable to 

 sit still without smoking any longer. Once again " my Lady 

 Nicotine " served me a good turn. As the smoke went 

 drifting lazily down wind in the soft breeze that was blowing, 

 and I kept looking in the direction it followed, my eyes were 

 greeted with the sight of a fine bull moose as he sprang up 

 from a spot where he had been lying. He started running at 

 a great pace through the short brush. His head was up and 

 his great horns lay back along his flanks. Pitka was appar- 

 ently looking straight at him, and I said to him, " What can 

 you see ? " He replied, " Me no can see nothing ; me think 

 all big moose dead." I then pointed out the moose in front 

 of us. He was running in a complete circle round the hill 

 on which we sat, and about 1000 yards away. On seeing 

 him, both Pitka and Ivan said, " Big horns — come — run quick." 

 They both dashed off in a direction at right angles to the 

 direction in which the moose ran. I saw that the idea was 

 to try to intercept him if he continued following the same 

 course, but had little hopes of our doing so, as we could not 



