AND OTHER SKETCHES 271 



THE GLORIOUS NORTHLAND— THE HOME OF 

 THE LORDLY MOOSE. 



Although much has been written about this lovely 

 Northland, nothing that has been said conveys more than 

 a faint idea of what a sportsmen's paradise it really is. 



I have canoed for hundreds of miles over its lakes and 

 rivers, have shot the rapids of the Blanche, have fished 

 for speckled trout in the numerous streams that empty 

 into its waters, have shot deer and bear in the magnifi- 

 cent forests that skirt its shores and have seen enough 

 moose in that country within easy travelling distance and 

 in the highlands at the head of the river, to convince me 

 that it is quite unnecessary for the Ontario Government 

 to forbid the shooting of moose, excepting at intervals of 

 years. I can speak positively on that score so far as 

 this section is concerned. I have in a day's journey 

 counted seventeen moose, five of them monster bulls, 

 whose antlered heads were crowns of glory that would 

 recompense a sportsman though he travelled a thousand 

 miles for his game. 



On my last trip to the head of the Blanche River I 

 kept a careful tally of the moose, caribou and deer that 

 I saw, and it totalled in one week 47 moose, 32 deer and 

 41 caribou. All these were seen on Ontario soil. The 

 moose, of course, being protected by the law, were not 

 assailable. Right here a rather ticklish question crops 

 up and I leave it to legal minds to carp over: whether 

 under the circumstances, if I had shot the moose I would 

 have been subject to the law's penalties? I was out 

 prospecting and, of course, carried my rifle with me; 

 passing out from a gully into a clump of trees, I ran prac- 

 tically on top of a big bull moose. I was within fifty 

 yards of him and it would be hard to say which was the 

 most surprised, the bull or myself. He, however, was in 

 fighting humor and did not propose giving me the right 



