A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



moose splashing as they fed in the water. As we crept through 

 the dripping grass and alders to its edge, the first sight that met 

 our eyes was the head and antlers of a two-year-old bull fifty 

 yards distant, gazing at us over the top of some alders across a 

 sm^all creek. Not wishing to alarm the moose farther along the 

 shores by stampeding this one, Joe made several cautious 

 signals with his hat to the wondering bull, which eventually 

 slipped away in the alders without cracking a twig. 



Wading out into the shallow water to gain a better view of 

 the pond, we discovered a cow and calf about seventy-five yards 

 along the shore, and a solitary cow several hundred yards dis- 

 tant, wallowing in the mud near the opposite shore. Then our 

 eyes were immediately focused on a large bull facing us, up to 

 its belly in the middle of the pond, about four hundred yards 

 distant. We at once started to crawl along a moose-trail lead- 

 ing parallel to the pond and in the direction of the game, and 

 passed quite close to where we could hear the cow and calf, 

 screened from our sight by alders, wallowing noisily in the 

 water. A few yards beyond this, hearing a violent and con- 

 tinuous splashing from the direction of the pond, and supposing 

 that we had alarmed these animals, we slipped along the trail 

 as rapidly as possible, in hope of securing a shot at the bull 

 before it reached the edge of the woods. 



Suddenly I saw Joe, who was stealing along in a crouching 

 position ahead of me, drop down on the moss and look back at 

 me with a foolish grin. A moment later I perceived that the 

 bull was facing us in the trail not twenty feet distant, but partly 

 hidden from view by the thick foliage. Slowly raising the car- 

 bine until the white bead was centred on the black chest of 

 the animal, I fired, and, as the moose swung around at the 

 report, shot it again through the shoulder. As I forced my way 

 through the alders in the wake of the struggling bull, I was 

 suddenly precipitated head -foremost into a bog-hole, and arose 

 from this plastered with black mud from head to foot and 



12 



