338 



impossibilities that they can well do 

 without. 



After the fourth call came an 

 answer. It was muffled and inde- 

 terminate. Bert and Nimrod sig- 

 nalled that it could hardly be any- 

 thing else but a bull. Then some 

 distance off we heard a moose dia- 

 logue, a low call, an answering bull 

 grunt, then another grunt still far- 

 ther away. Then, much nearer, the 

 challenging call of one bull to an- 

 other. It was answered far away: 

 then silence. 



I was greatly stirred by this wood- 

 land duet, but Nimrod and Bert 

 exchanged puzzled shrugs. Some- 

 thing seemed not orthodox. 



Again we heard the challenging 

 call of the bull and again the answer, 

 much closer. Perhaps it was to be 

 our rare privilege to see two bulls 

 fighting for the lady's foot or heart. 



The intense listening and excite- 

 ment was so great that when the 

 report of a gun thundered out, I 

 almost jumped out of the canoe. 

 If the last trump had sounded I 

 could not have been more startled. 

 We knew of no other party in that 



