MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 183 



districts where the bull call is so successful, and conse- 

 quently each bull has to win his mate by ordeal of 

 battle ; whereas in Maine and Lower Canada the law 

 which protects cows absolutely has been in force long 

 enough to have brought about an immense increase in 

 their numbers. 



On the evening I write of the comparative stillness of 

 the weather was greatly in our favour, and the calls 

 must have carried quite three or even four miles, being 

 aided in this by a high ridge near by, which caught and 

 hurled the sound onward. 



Almost immediately after the calls darkness came on 

 apace. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed ; a squirrel hissed 

 and chattered from a tree, an owl mournfully saluted the 

 night, and the shadows of the woodland deepened round 

 the margin of the lake. Then followed a silence till a 

 musk-rat came swimming down, and suddenly, either 

 seeing or winding us, dived with a click like a cork being 

 drawn from a bottle ; and then the owl once more. 



Half an hour passed thus before Ed called again ; 

 another half-hour, and yet another. It was not until 

 after the fourth time of calling that from far away we 

 heard first the sound of a breaking stick and then the 

 grunt of a bull moose. Ed quivered like a dog 

 drawing on game. For twelve years he has been calling 

 and shooting moose, and, being a true sportsman if 

 ever there was one, he felt all the cool yet glorious 

 eagerness of his kind. 



" He'll be twenty minutes coming in, I dare say. 

 He's a mighty mean moose not to have come earlier," 

 whispered Ed. And indeed the light by this time 

 was not very good, although the stars were struggling 

 feebly through an army of clouds. 



