MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 181 



so late a date in the season (October 13th), and I am 

 inclined to think they would not have paid much heed 

 to a less skilful caller. During the forenoon, quite 

 close to camp, we shot three ruffed grouse with a 

 small -22, which we had brought for the purpose. 

 All through our stay in the woods this rifle gave 

 us a good deal of amusement, as it made hardly any 

 noise and so did not in the least alarm any animals 

 that might be in the neighbourhood, while the birds we 

 brought down with it supplied many of our meals with 

 uncommonly good spatchcock. 



Before going further it may be well to correct some 

 rather prevalent ideas upon the subject of moose 

 calling. There are persons who, having had no actual 

 experience of this, in many cases, very high form of 

 sport, criticise " calling " as an unworthy way in which 

 to kill moose. Since the day of which I write I have 

 hunted moose in every fashion that is, by still-hunting 

 in the woods, by calling, and upon the snow ; and it is 

 my opinion that calling can give the hunter a thrill 

 almost unequalled in any other form of sport. It is 

 true that the moose comes to the hunter and the 

 hunter does not (as in the theoretically highest methods 

 of sport he should) go to the moose ; but the science 

 and the knowledge of woodcraft that can draw so shy 

 an animal to accept the caller's voice for that of his 

 mate raises calling to a high rank, at any rate for the 

 hunter who himself uses the horn. 



It must also be remembered that on such occasions 

 the moose almost invariably " comes in " on the wrong 

 side of the lake, and as the time at which he arrives is 

 generally an hour and a half or so after sunset, he is in 

 the shadow of the waterside trees, and the distance is 



