MOOSE HUNTING AND CALLING. 179 



hardwood had not yet all fallen and each maple 

 displayed its full glory of crimson leaves. 



As we drove we heard to use Mr. Kipling's words 

 " the monstrous female voices " of the fog-sirens piercing 

 the light mists which overspread the river. It is, by the 

 way, a curious fact that the noise of a siren, heard at a 

 distance, resembles in some degree the call of the cow 

 moose. All round the Canadian coast this fact has 

 been noticed, and moose generally young and un- 

 sophisticated beasts have been, and continually are. 

 killed upon the open seashore flats, whither they have 

 been lured by the song of their strange charmer. In a 

 word, the fog-horns have brought many a welcome joint 

 of moose meat to vary the dietary at the salmon 

 cannaries. 



Our objective was a log hut on the margin of Depot 

 Lake. All along the earlier part of the road we met 

 with French-Canadian settlers, almost every one of 

 whom carried a single-barrelled shot-gun on the chance 

 of seeing a covey of ruffed or Canada grouse, which 

 at this season of the year are often found on the edges 

 of the trail and forest paths. At the last house we 

 happened to fall in with the warden of the district, 

 Eleazar Hinds, and I arranged that he should accompany 

 us, as he was familiar with the woods in which I proposed 

 to hunt. 



About an hour before sundown we arrived at a point 

 beyond which the buck-board could not go, so shoulder- 

 ing our packs we began our four-miles tramp to the 

 hut. Excepting where the trail was flooded by the 

 workings of beavers, the walking was easy, and we had 

 gone nearly half way when Ed found the track of 

 a cow moose that had crossed only a short time before. 



N 2 



