520 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



of " driving deer into the lake !" The Piseco Cluh boast 

 of having noosed a buck and taken him a prisoner to shore, 

 and tied him up to a tree. But this is a feat very easy of 

 accomplishment, so far as noosing the deer is concerned ; 

 though, I suppose, no one else would fancy the troublesome 

 and useless job of getting the animal out of the water alive. 



The boatman often takes the deer by the tail, and makes 

 it draw the boat ; and I know of instances where the perilous 

 feat of seizing a buck by the horns, and holding its head 

 under water until drowned, has been performed. But such 

 feats as this last are as rare as they are unwise. ' The most 

 amusing instance I have heard, though, of these attempts 

 to capture a grown animal, is furnished in that which was 

 made by a party of sagacious hunters in this neighborhood, 

 a winter ago, to take an old bull moose alive with ropes. 

 As tnis leaves the feat of the Piseco Club far in the shade, 

 I am tempted to give it. 



Some lucky hunter had lately succeeded in capturing a 

 couple of moose alive, and had sold them to a menagerie 

 company for a round sum. This set all the hunters in a 

 furor to capture live moose. The yard of a famous large 

 bull having been discovered by a half-breed Indian hunter, 

 he was accompanied by several of the hunters about Lake 

 Pleasant, on a grand turn-out to make the attempt upon this 

 fellow. The snow was very deep, and the moose was soon 

 brought to a stand by the men on their snow-shoes. When 

 they came up, they found he had backed himself into a 

 strong position, with the roots of a torn-up tree in his rear, 

 on one side, and a great shelving rock on the other. He 

 was an enormous fellow, and they proceeded to make their 

 demonstrations with most respectful caution. 



One of the party ascended the trunk of the inclining tree 

 from his rear, and climbing thence on to the shelving rock 

 above, from, as he supposed, a very safe elevation, succeeded 

 in throwing a rope-noose over one of its spreading antlers. 



