232 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



the Porcupine ought to come in on the right-hand bank. 

 Indubitably this was the Porcupine, however, for I knew 

 it to be a stream somewhat larger in reality than the 

 Bell and that these two are the only rivers of comparable 

 size. I remembered Firth had told me that although the 

 Old Crow was large, it was a good deal smaller than 

 the Bell. 



Not far from the Porcupine mouth I saw the second 

 moose. It was walking along the river bank, headed 

 downstream, and a quarter of a mile away from the raft. 

 Just to see what it would do, I fired my revolver into the 

 hillside above it. Either the actual noise of the bullet 

 striking the hillside or the echo of the shot deceived the 

 animal into thinking the danger was up the hill, for after 

 trotting along the bank a few steps it plunged into the 

 river to swim across. When it got abreast of my raft 

 and about a hundred yards downstream from it, it sud- 

 denly turned and swam back again. I think this was 

 because I was trying to row (for the river just here was 

 too deep for poling) and it probably heard the splashing. 



Rafts are ordinarily handled with poles and I had one 

 about fourteen feet long. I seldom used it except for 

 sounding purposes. I found by that means that the 

 water is more than fourteen feet deep in a good many 

 places. Apart from the rapid through which I went in 

 the night, I think the river could have been navigated 

 at that season by a boat drawing three or four feet of 

 water. But this seemed to be about the season of high 

 water. Now that I was si; ashore nights, I used 



to put a mark in the water's edge in the evening and 

 take it up the next morning. I would find by this means 

 that the river had risen some nights as much as an inch 

 per hour. By the water marks along the beach I could 



