194 Moose -Hunting in Canada. 



filled up can be seen at work. The ground rises considerably in the 

 center of these barrens, which is, I believe, the case with all bogs 

 and peat mosses. I have never measured any of their areas, neither 

 have I attempted to estimate the extent of the curvature of the sur- 

 face ; but on a barren where I hunted last year, of about two miles 

 across, the ground rose so much in the center that when standing at 

 one edge we could see the upper half of the pine trees which grew 

 at the other. The rise appeared to be quite gradual, and the effect 

 was as if one stood on an exceedingly small globe, the natural curv- 

 ature of which hid the opposite trees. 



To return to our calling. We got out upon the barren, or, rather, 

 upon a deep bay or indentation of a large barren, about four o'clock 

 in the afternoon, and made our way to a little wooded island, which 

 afforded us shelter and dry ground, and which was within easy 

 shot of one side of the bay, and so situated with regard to the other 

 that a moose coming from that direction would not hesitate to 

 approach it. The first thing to be done is to make a lair for 

 oneself — a little bed. You pick out a nice sheltered soft spot, 

 chop down a few sapin branches with your knife, gather a quantity 

 of dry grass or bracken, and make as comfortable a bed as the 

 circumstances of the case will permit. 



Having made these little preparations, I sat down and smoked 

 my pipe while the Indian climbed up a neighboring pine-tree to 

 " call." The only object of ascending a tree is that the sound may 

 be carried further into the recesses of the forest. The instrument 

 wherewith the caller endeavors to imitate the cry of the cow con- 

 sists of a cone-shaped tube made out of a sheet of birch-bark rolled 

 up. This horn is about eighteen inches in length and three or four 

 in diameter at the broadest end, the narrow end being just large 

 enough to fit the mouth. The "caller" uses it like a speaking- 

 trumpet, groaning and roaring through it, imitating as well as he 

 can the cry of the cow-moose. Few white men can call really well, 

 but some Indians, by long practice, can imitate the animal with won- 

 derful success. Fortunately, however, no two moose appear to have 

 precisely the same voice, but make all kinds of strange and diabolical 

 noises, so that even a novice in the art may not despair of himself call- 

 ing up a bull. The real difficulty — the time when you require a perfect 

 mastery of the art — is when the bull is close by, suspicious, and 



