236 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



good bull, but the hope of finding a larger one before our 

 time expired withheld the hand from the trigger. As 

 we returned to camp after this stalk we were careless of 

 showing ourselves to the moose and consequently he 

 caught sight of us and followed us much nearer. Then, 

 getting below wind of the fire, he made a circle through 

 the foothills and emerged on the lower ground in the 

 direction of Benjamin Creek cabin. We saw him there 

 the next morning on arising, and went down over the 

 benches to have another look at the animal. This time 

 we did not exactly locate him among the fallen timber 

 before he had heard us and dashed off at a great rate 

 down over the hillocks nearer to the river bottom. 



On the third morning the same moose was still to be 

 seen approximately at the place where we had last 

 observed him. We were pretty well satisfied by this 

 time that the horns would make no mean trophy and 

 Bill said to me, "If you're going to shoot two moose I 

 think you had better take this one." Accordingly we 

 set after him. 



From the little knoll immediately at our camp we 

 could spy for many miles over the lower country between 

 us and the Killey River and also more dimly over to the 

 country along the Funny River. Much of the imme- 

 diate foreground was burned-over coimtry, where the 

 naked trunks of the spruce trees had fallen and lay 

 crossed and tangled like piles of jackstraws. Little 

 tongues of green timber ran down into the broken country 

 from the hills north of us, very many patches of dense 

 alders beset the sides and bottoms of the numerous 

 ravines, but here and there were old moose trails 

 which led by apparently practicable routes toward the 

 spot where our game lay unsuspicious of danger. The 



