A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



ful moose-hunt at the pond, I intend to describe an experience 

 with a bull moose whose actions I can only explain on the 

 hypothesis that the animal was insane to some degree. Howe 

 and I, with two guides and a cook, were camped in the same 

 grove of trees mentioned before, when Landry's son came into 

 camp one evening after dark with a telegram which required 

 my friend to go home immediately. At daylight he started, 

 accompanied by John and his son, intending to call at the 

 pond for an hour before striking across the country for Bathurst, 

 over forty miles distant. After the only comfortable late 

 breakfast that I had enjoyed for many days, I wandered down 

 to the shores of the pond in a depressing drizzle, and sat on a 

 log among the dripping alders to watch and listen, 



John's calling during the early part of the morning must have 

 attracted a solitary morose old bull to the scene, as I had no 

 sooner commenced to feel thoroughly chilled than I heard a 

 deep-throated grunt in the alders behind me. By the noise of 

 swishing bushes and rattling of antlers against branches which 

 followed the first grunt, I knew just which moose-trail the bull 

 was following down the hillside, and, stealing forward, I sat 

 on a log which lay across the narrow path among thick alders. 

 I was unable to see the moose until it was almost upon me; 

 but the moment its black head was suddenly thrust through the 

 alder-tops several yards ahead, I realized that while it carried 

 antlers of a very w4de spread, it was an old bull with narrow 

 blades and few points, and was not worth shooting. 



A couple of long strides had brought the animal within six 

 feet, at which distance I thought it prudent to rise to my 

 feet, expecting to see the frightened moose whirl and plunge 

 away through the alders. Instead of this, at the sudden sight 

 of me the nostrils of the bull twitched, its eyes became blood- 

 shot, and its mane slowly rose on end. With my own hair fol- 

 lowing suit, I rapidly brought the rifle to my shoulder, and 

 with the muzzle within three feet of his chest, awaited develop- 



