198 HUNTING CAMPS. 



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 reaUy 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 caUs by which the cow moose makes known 

 her whereabouts to her mate. 



During his many seasons of calling Ed Atkins has 

 naturally had one or two strange experiences. Once, 

 for instance, he received no fewer than four separate 

 answers to a call ; and on another occasion, when calling 

 at one of the home camps of his uncle the well-known 

 Will Atkins, of Maine a bull was coming in satis- 

 factorily when the large dinner-bell tolled in the hotel 

 some miles away, a sound which effectually turned the 

 moose back. 



Calling is no longer much carried on in Maine, where 

 the season for moose does not open till the 15th of 

 October, so that the pick of the Maine guides go to 

 practise their art in New Brunswick, where moose are 

 plentiful and where the season opens on the 15th of 

 September. About this date moose usually begin to 

 answer, and for about a month a bull can be called in by 

 any one who is skilful enough to produce an adequate 

 imitation of the cow's voice. In some seasons the bulls 

 answer much earlier, as was the case in 1908, when Ed 

 called in a good bull on Lake Edward on the evening of 

 the 2nd of September. The horns of this animal were 



