Chumfo y the Super-sense 



but no sooner is the door opened for him than he is 

 around the house and away, heading as straight 

 for the disturbance as if he knew, as he probably 

 does, exactly where to find it. Yet your dog is, 

 I repeat, a very dull creature in comparison with 

 his wild kindred. Their ability to locate a sound 

 is almost unbelievable, not because they have more 

 delicate ears (for the human ear is much finer, being 

 sensitive to a thousand inflections, tones, harmonies, 

 which are meaningless to the brute), but because 

 of what the Blacks call their better chumfo or what 

 we thoughtlessly call their stronger instincts. 



This has been strongly impressed upon me at 

 times when I have tried to call a moose in the 

 wilderness. If you seek these animals far back 

 where they are never hunted a difficult matter 

 nowadays the bulls answer readily enough, or 

 sometimes too readily, as when one big brute 

 chased me to my canoe and gave me a hatless run 

 for it ; but in a much-hunted region they are very 

 shy and come warily to a call. The best way to 

 see them in such a place is to call a few times 

 at night, or until you get an answer, and then go 

 quickly away before the bull comes near enough 

 to begin circling suspiciously. At daybreak you 

 are very apt to find him waiting; and the aston- 

 ishing thing is that he is waiting at the very spot 

 where you used your trumpet. 



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