38 A SPORTING PARADISE 



a score of yards off, stood the mighty marsh 

 beast, strange and uncouth in look as some 

 monster surviving over the Pliocene. His vast 

 bulk loomed black and vague in the dim grey 

 dawn ; his huge antlers stood out sharply ; 

 columns of steam rose from his nostrils. For 

 several seconds he fronted me motionless ; then 

 he began to turn, slowly, and as if he had a stiff 

 neck. When quarter-way round I fired into his 

 shoulder : whereat he reared and bounded on the 

 bank with a great leap, vanishing in the willows. 

 Through these I heard him crash like a whirlwind 

 for a dozen rods ; then down he fell, and when 

 I reached the spot he had ceased to struggle. The 

 ball had gone through his heart." 



An old hunter told President Roosevelt the 

 following story of an encounter with a bull moose 

 which terminated fatally. 



" He was hunting near the Cceur d'Alene 

 Mountains with a mining prospector named 

 Pingree ; both were originally from New Hamp- 

 shire. Late in November there came a heavy 

 fall of snow, deep enough to soon bring a deer 

 to a standstill, although not so deep as to hamper 

 a moose's movements. The men bound on their 

 skees and started to the borders of a lake to kill 



