186 HUNTING CAMPS. 



to be growing lighter, and I waited, straining my eyes 

 at the dark bulk which was so close. Perhaps only a 

 minute passed, though it seemed infinitely longer to 

 me, and then the affair was taken out of my hands. 



I have said that the lake was shut in by tall timber, 

 and probably this fact caused an eddy of wind. I was 

 aware of a touch of cool air on the back of my head, 

 and at the same moment of a tremendous stampede in 

 front and another to the right . . . crash, crash, crash. 



" Hear his horns in the timber ! " from Ed in a 

 voice of emotion. The sounds continued for a few 

 moments, the crashing of the gigantic deer as they 

 galloped off among the trees, and afterwards dead 

 silence, to be broken at length by the cry of an owl. 



" Mean luck ! " said Ed ; " I'm sure he had great 

 horns." We turned the canoe about and made the 

 shore, then, lighting our lantern, walked dejectedly 

 back across the hardwood ridges to our log camp. 

 Such was my first experience of the Canadian moose. 



I think we sat up till one o'clock in the morning 

 talking it all over and trying to see how we might have 

 bettered our fortunes. " He'd have been our moose if 



we had had a jack same as Crook used at in 



Province," remarked Ed ; " but jacking's against the 

 law." 



In another place, and with quite another companion 

 than Ed, I have seen jacking for moose practised, 

 and I must acknowledge, whatever the ethics connected 

 with the method may be, that it presents risks to the 

 hunter as well as to the hunted. In order to "jack" 

 the hunters choose a dark, still night, and having bound 

 a lantern, the light in which can be shut off, upon a 

 mast rigged well forward in the canoe, the man who is 



