MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 177 



it lasts but two weeks, sometimes three or even four 

 when, if the weather be fine, the moose becomes master of 

 the situation. This period begins when calling ends about 

 the 6th to 1 2th of October and continues until the first 

 snow falls. It is a time of hoar-frosts and sunshine, when 

 every stick in the woods is brittle and every leaf crackles 

 under even the most practised moccasin. Tracking is diffi- 

 cult, noiseless approach almost impossible. Moose are 

 killed at this time, but generally it is the hunter's luck 

 rather than his skill which stands his friend on these occa- 

 sions. 



But once the first snow falls and lies the chances of the 

 game veer round. After that nothing can move in the 

 woods without leaving an open advertisement of all its 

 doings and wanderings, and it is consequently easy to tell 

 the number of moose upon any given piece of country, and 

 even the approximate spread of their horns, by measuring 

 the spaces between close-growing trees through which they 

 have passed. 



In this connection it may be noted that the range of a 

 moose is very limited more limited, I think, than that of 

 the European elk. A moose lives, and in due season dies, 

 within a comparatively small ring of country a lake, a 

 hardwood ridge, a thicket of alders, a little marsh, such is 

 his environment ; and even if disturbed he rarely travels 

 more than four miles, in which respect he differs from the 

 caribou, who, once his suspicions are aroused, heads away 

 at his mile-eating gait, and travels for hours and even 

 days. 



The movements of moose in bulk are slow so slow that 

 it takes as long as thirty years for a country to become 

 well stocked. Thus in the old days, before legislation of 

 a protective nature was thought of, the moose were en- 

 tirely killed out in certain districts. The slaughter was 

 committed in the winter, when the deer had " yarded/' at 



