MOOSE-CALLING IN NEW BRUNSWICK 



the birches sixty yards ahead. Cautiously stealing forward, I 

 discovered both cows standing motionless among the trees 

 about fifty yards to my left, but it was only after listening for 

 several minutes that a slight movement among the branches 

 in a clump of small spruces to my right warned me of the 

 proximity of the wounded bull. Making a stealthy circuit of 

 the thicket, I found myself within a few yards of the badly 

 wounded moose, w^hich, w^ith drooping head, was leaning against 

 a maple for support. A shot through the shoulders at short 

 range caused it to stagger forward stiff-legged for several yards, 

 sway unsteadily, and then go down with a crash at the second 

 report of the rifle. The two cows immediately disappeared 

 among the white birch trunks and mass of red and yellow- 

 tinted autumn foliage that covered the mountain-side. 



This bull had a very thick and hea\'y set of antlers, but 

 they only carried twenty-two points and measured fifty-one 

 inches at the widest spread. During the shooting of the pre- 

 vious evening it had been struck twice, but nevertheless, in 

 spite of a gaping wound through the thick of the neck and a 

 shattered hip, it had led us a chase through several miles of 

 very unfavorable country. Near the scene of the death of the 

 bull we noticed the signs of another tragedy, where evidently 

 a large black bear had killed a cow moose, probably in a weak- 

 ened condition, in the spring of the year before. The scattered 

 bones of the moose, and the evidences of the struggle showing 

 upon the surrounding tree-trunks and bushes, indicated that 

 the bear had only killed this animal after a violent fight, and 

 then by pinning it against a small maple for support. Loaded 

 down with the head and some of the meat of the bull, we 

 managed to cross the bridge of saplings before dark, and were 

 genuinely grateful to see the red glow of the camp-fire flicker- 

 ing among the whitened, dead tree-trunks ahead. 



Before finishing this article with an account of a last success- 

 3 19 



