A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE 131 



evidences that I had stumbled upon a real sanctuary of 

 the moose, when crash ! crash ! went a big animal 

 through the alders. 



The rifle was quickly brought to the shoulder, and 

 as quickly lowered ; it was but a cow moose and a 

 small one at that. No doubt it was the one whose 

 tracks we had seen once before. She ran fifty yards 

 or so, then she turned around and watched me with 

 keen attention, but she was of no interest to me and 

 again I started down the puzzling brook. 



But mark now, another series of rushes startled me, 

 and another big animal was tearing like mad through 

 the alders. Once more the rifle was raised, and this 

 time my eyes looked upon the largest bull moose I had 

 ever seen. His antlers showed just for a second above 

 the waving alders. He was running away in an al- 

 most direct line from me, and it was a rather nice shot 

 to get a bullet in back of his shoulder. 



The trigger was touched, and " laws-a-mighty ! " as a 

 colored guide used to say, with the report of the rifle 

 the great animal dropped as if hit with a sledge-ham- 

 mer. I pumped another cartridge into the gun to be 

 sure of being ready if one more cartridge was needed, 

 but it wasn't. He had fallen on a sloping piece of 

 ground and was quite dead when I reached him. I 

 viewed him over and examined his head and huge feet. 



I said to myself, " There is the veritable moose that 

 year after year for a decade back the lumbermen and 



