216 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



grunt at us, then back out of the water up on to the bank and 

 there stand, not fifty feet away, towering above us — for he 

 may measure from six to seven feet at the shoulder and 

 weigh three quarters of a ton — shaking his great antlers and 

 grunting, or perhaps, more properly speaking, barking at us 

 while he stamps his big fore hoofs until he shakes the very 

 river bank. 



How children love to take part in such sport! How they 

 thrill over such an experience! Many a time I have taken 

 them right up to even the largest of bulls until the little tots 

 could look into the very eyes of the greatest of all living deer. 

 What fine little hunters, too, they made, never speaking, not 

 even in a whisper; never moving — save only their eyelids. 

 In fact, I have been so close to wild moose that on one occasion 

 I could have spanked a huge bull with my paddle. He was 

 standing belly-deep in the river with his head under water, 

 and so close did my canoe glide past him that I had to turn it 

 to prevent it from running in between his hind legs. It was 

 the sound of turning aside the canoe that brought his head up, 

 and when he beheld the cause, he lunged forward and trotted 

 away leaving a great wake of surging foam behind him. His 

 head, crowned with massive antlers, was a ponderous affair. 

 His body was as large as that of a Shire stallion and his back 

 just as flat, while his legs were very much longer. He was 

 the largest moose I have ever seen — and yet, by leaning slightly 

 toward him, I could have spanked him with my paddle! One 

 such experience with a great, wild animal, is more adventure- 

 some, more thrilling and more satisfactory, than the shooting 

 of a hundred such creatures. It is more than the sport of kings 

 — it is the sport of men of common sense. 



On another occasion, at Shahwandahgooze, in Quebec, 

 in broad daylight, I paddled a friend of mine right in between 

 three bulls and a cow, and there we rested with moose on three 

 sides of us. They were standing in a semicircle and no one of 



