A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



which would have meant death to a man, but through which 

 the moose swam and floundered with comparative ease as they 

 fed on a minute white root with which the mud was filled. 

 This bog-hole, from twenty to four hundred yards in width and 

 about eight hundred yards in length, was fed by three sluggish 

 creeks which wound through almiost impenetrable alder swamps 

 and flowed out of the pond into the shallow, swift stream on 

 which our camp was situated. 



The pond was an ideal spot for moose-calling. The shores 

 were low and marshy, ending in a thick fringe of tamaracks, 

 spruces, and balsams, and surrounded by hardwood ridges. 

 The foliage of the birches and maples at this time of the year 

 began to show the vivid coloring of late September and early 

 October. The first afternoon, when we had pitched camp at 

 the edge of the hruUe, we adjourned to the edge of the pond, 

 and during the evening saw several cows and calves, while at 

 twilight we had several distant answers to Joe's calling by what 

 sounded like a large bull far up the slope of the opposite hard- 

 wood ridge. 



Early the next morning Joe tried again to call this bull out 

 for Howe to shoot at ; but, although it answered several times, 

 the only bull that showed itself was a 3^oung one which did not 

 have a sufficient spread of antlers to warrant its death. How- 

 ever, later in the afternoon the old bull became incautious, and, 

 in answer to Joe's repeated invitations from the horn, came out 

 on the shores of the pond and was promptly laid low by my 

 friend's rifle. This moose carried a thick and heavy set of 

 blades, with twenty-five points and a spread of fifty-two inches 

 — altogether a very handsome head. 



I had been watching a small lake about a mile and a half 

 distant in the burnt timber up to this time, and now shifted 

 my attention to the pond. Every favorable morning and 

 evening found Joe and myself in the vicinity of this small but 

 interesting sheet of water listening to the plaintive wail of his 



