Sport in an Untouched A merican H 'ilderness 



Placing the birch-bark horn to his lips, 

 the guide gave the long, wailing bellow 

 of the cow-moose, not loud, but in the 

 same coaxing tone which characterized 

 the genuine article, as we had heard it 

 vibrating in the evening air two or three 

 days before. The echoes had not died 

 away when, across the narrow water, from 

 a thicket nearly opposite us, came the 

 never-to-be-forgotten hoarse grunt of a 

 bull, repeated every few seconds as the 

 animal rushed toward the water's edge. 

 In less than a minute we caught sight of 

 his broad antlers, glistening in the sun, as 

 he pushed impatiently through the thick 

 branches. Then he broke through the 

 bushes ; and as he stood by the water's 

 edge, intently looking and listening, his 

 head thrown high in the air, it seemed to 

 me that he appeared ten feet tall. 



It was as easy a shot as one could ask 

 for. Any kind of a marksman could hit 

 a man's hat at that distance, and the ani- 

 mal's black bulk stood out against the rifle 

 sight as big as the front door of a house. 

 One glance was enough ; and at the report 

 of the heavy rifle the moose wheeled sud- 

 denly about, and plunged along the shore 

 of the lake for fully fifty yards. While 

 he was covering that distance I fired four 



i 49 



