170 HUNTING CAMPS. 



Edward Atkins had been for eight years a Maine guide 

 at the camps of his uncle, the well-known Will Atkins, who 

 is said to give his clients more sport and to manage his 

 camps more adequately than any other man in the same line 

 of business. Ed proved to be one of the keenest hunters, 

 and is certainly a good moose caller, and I liked him from 

 the first, a liking which has been increased by the five other 

 trips we have since then made together in Canada. 



We had dinner, and were before long in bed, and, though 

 we heard it rain in the night, we woke to find the morning 

 splendidly fine. As compared with the woods among which 

 I had just spent some weeks in Newfoundland, I was much 

 struck by the height and growth of the Canadian trees, 

 and especially of the grand hardwood ridges. The lake, 

 which lay in front of the hut, was crowded to its very verge 

 by the forests, and open spaces were few and far between. 

 The country looked in all respects an excellent one for 

 moose, and I was not a little glad to find myself well launched 

 on a trip that had been dwelling on my mind with a good 

 deal of persistency for more than two years. 



We spent a lazy day, as Ed thought it wiser not to dis- 

 turb the ground for calling, though at the same time he 

 doubted whether the bulls would still answer at so late a 

 date in the season (October I3th), and I am inclined to think 

 they would not have paid much heed to a less skilful caller. 

 During the forenoon, quite close to camp, we shot three 

 ruffed grouse with a small .22, which we had brought for the 

 purpose. All through our stay in the woods this rifle gave 

 us a good deal of amusement, as it made hardly any noise 

 and so did not in the least alarm any animals that might be 

 in the neighbourhood, while the birds we brought down 

 with it supplied many of our meals with uncommonly good 

 spatchcock. 



Before going further it may be well to correct some 

 rather prevalent ideas upon the subject of moose-calling. 



