MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 185 



most determined charge, which he could hardly have avoided 

 had he not been able to turn the animal slightly with a 

 shot in the chest. 



Since the discovery of the variety of moose now known 

 as A Ices americanus gigas in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, 

 it has become a recognised fact that these enormous animals 

 exceed in size the moose of Lower Canada in about the same 

 degree and proportion as the moose of Lower Canada exceed 

 the elk of Norway. There is, doubtless, a more than fair 

 sprinkling of seventy-inch heads in Alaska, though few of 

 these are probably finer than the grand sixty-six and a 

 half-inch head shot by Mr. F. C. Selous upon a western 

 spur of the Rockies in 1904. But from recent statistics it 

 would appear that the last few years have been very favour- 

 able in the matter of large heads in Eastern Canada. Among 

 individual specimens may be mentioned the sixty-eight 

 inch head shot quite recently in New Brunswick, and a very 

 fine sixty-three and a half -inch head which I saw at a taxi- 

 dermist's in Ottawa. 



Mr. Price also shot a moose spreading over sixty-three 

 inches in 1908 near Rimouski. This head, which I had the 

 pleasure of examining, was a very fine one. 



There are many who profess the accomplishment of 

 moose-calling, but when put to the test in the woods very 

 few are found to be really experts. In Alaska and the West 

 hunters imitate the grunt of the bull which he sends through 

 the forest as a challenge to his rivals in love and war ; but 

 it is rather in the United States, in Lower Canada, in New 

 Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario, that calling really becomes 

 an art ; for in these latter places the hunter usually imitates, 

 not the short, harsh grunt of the bull, but the three long- 

 drawn, modulated calls by which the cow moose makes 

 known her whereabouts to her mate. 



During his many seasons of calling Ed Atkins has natu- 

 rally had one or two strange experiences. Once, for in- 



