A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



blades to realize that it carried a large head, and as the sun 

 was already sinking over the opposite hardwood ridge, John 

 tried every wile of the caller. He imitated moose splashing in 

 the water; he gave the low, close call of the cow, known 

 locally as the "coaxer," and the plaintive whine of the calf 

 moose; and rattled the birch-bark horn against the alders in 

 imitation of the noise made by a rival bull — but all without ap- 

 parent success. This old bull had evidently heard the crack, 

 of the rifle, and possibly felt the sting of lead in answer to that 

 same call before; and although it seemed to become infuriated, 

 and made much more noise than John, it refused to show itself 

 as a target. 



Two cows which were accompanying the bull, curious to 

 discover the source of all this commotion, came out to the 

 water on a point fifty yards distant, and we spent an uncom- 

 fortable twenty minutes flattened out in the wet, freezing mud 

 at the edge of the pond while they looked us over. Finally 

 they returned to the restless bull, which immediately ceased 

 grunting, and silence reigned over the pond again. 



It was already quite dark and a white mist was settling 

 over the surface of the freezing water, when the indistinct black 

 forms of both cows, and then the bull, showed up against the 

 white haze, as they waded out into the pond and started to feed. 

 The distance was only seventy yards, but the darkness concealed 

 the gun-sights and made aiming only guesswork. I covered the 

 indistinct target afforded by the bull as well as I could, and 

 fired twice with the 9 mm. Mauser which I had in my hands. 



A terrific splashing and cracking of alders followed the two 

 reports, but, listening intently, we failed to hear the rattling 

 of blades against bush and tree which a running bull moose 

 would cause. When the noise of the departing cows had finally 

 died away in the distance, we could hear the spasmodic, gasp- 

 ing cough of a wounded animal, and make out the indistinct 

 black mass of the moose among some stunted junipers on the 



17 



