MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 183 



rather sceptical, in spite of his promising to lead me to the 

 tracks in the morning the more so as the night, which had 

 just fallen, gave promise of snow. The end of the matter 

 was that at ten o'clock that night the indefatigable Ed and 

 I, accompanied by our French-Canadian cook, broke the 

 thin ice on the lake and went off in the canoe to find the 

 tracks and to verify the story by lantern-light. It is but 

 fair to say that we did find huge slots, and spent the next 

 day in following them up. So far the cook proved himself 

 a man of his word, but in the matter of the size of the bull's 

 horns he erred strangely. Perhaps they are bigger now, 

 for they have had time to grow. 



I often wondered at, and often regretted, the prohibition 

 which obtains all over America against the use of dogs in 

 moose-hunting. I do not mean by this the use of a pack or 

 of a single loose hound, such as in Sweden is used to run 

 down and bay the great deer, but I refer to the harnessed 

 hound of Norway. There, as is well known, 90 per cent, 

 of all the elk killed annually are killed over dogs. The 

 presence of a hound adds enormously to the enjoyment of 

 the hunter, and as the animal is on leash it certainly does 

 not frighten or disturb the elk or do any damage. 



A blank day in America, spent as it must be in walking 

 over the endless hardwood ridges, is a dull affair, the more 

 especially as the hunter knows that luck rather than skill 

 is needed to crown his efforts. But a blank day in Norway 

 may be full of excitement, for there the hound is a living 

 barometer, giving warning of the nearness of the elk, which 

 he can wind at a great distance, often leading the hunter 

 to a fresh track a mile off, so that when one knows and 

 understands a dog's ways dulness is finally driven away. 

 Then there is no pushing on through interminable forests 

 in a comparatively blind fashion, but every step is taken 

 with a view to the next, and for the hunter who goes alone 

 and works his own dog the sport is a splendid one indeed. 



