

MOOSE HUNTING. 8!) 



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luiiitrr will never leave you in the woods in distress ; 



and should you cut yourself with an axo, meet with a > ^ 



«;un aecith'ut, or ho taken otherwise sick, will cMrry you 



himself out of the woods.* Under his guichmee we will 



now introduce the rciider to the sport of moose hunting. 



Old Joo Cope, the Indian hunter, is still to the fore ;"!■ 

 his little le<L!;s, in sha])o reseml)ling the curved hiindle of 

 pliers, carry him after the; moose nearly as triistily as 

 ever. Perhaps his sight and hearing are failing him, iind 

 he generally hunts in company with his son Jem as an 

 assistant ; and Jem, Ijcing a lusty young Indian, does ' fi 



most of the work in " backing out" the moosc-nn'at 

 from the woods. . W\ 



" Joe," said I, on meeting the pair one morning late 

 in Se})teml)er, a few falls ago, at the country-market at 

 Halifax, where they wei-c S(.'lling a large (quantity of 

 moose-meat, Joe's eyes beaming with ferocious satisfaction 



* Tliu following aiiccdoto — a scmji from the notc-liook of an old comrailc fc- 



in tilt! woods — is an interustiug I'xanipU'. of tlu! Indian's reilcctivu imiwcts : — '■} 

 " At length Paid, who is hiading, stops, and, tnrning towards ns, ])oints 



towards a cleared line throiigh the forest. 'A road, a roa<l ! ' and we give .■ fil'v 



three .s't(c/i eheers. It is a logging-road, leading from the settlements into ■' 

 the forest ; hnt which is the way to the clearings I If we tnrn in the wrong 



direction it will delay ns another day, and we have only a little tea left and :. ' m, 



six small biscuits. It is soon settleil ; wo turn to the h^ft, and jiresi'utly • *> 



tind a wisp of hay dropjied c\oze to n tree. Now comes out a i)iece of ■; ^f 



Indian "cuteness.' Paul has ohserved that when a tree knocks off a hand- ^', 



I'ul of hay from a h)ad, it falls on that side of the tree to which tlu' cart is 'i- 



going : the hay is on our .side of the tree, so we are going in the direction '} 



whence the cart came. But it might ho wild hay, brought in from a ;; ' 



natural meadow. Thej- taste and smell it ; it is salt (in this country the p 



farmers salt the meadow hay to keep it, but not the wild liay) : lience this ■ K; 



was hay carted from the st'ttlements foi' the use of <i\en em]iloyrd in haul- ^; 



ing out lumber. W'e are, therefore, going in the direction whence the cart ■ j|n 



came, and towards the settlements." ' ; j^i' 



t Sinci! this was written, jioor .loe has forever h'ft the hunting grounds ': ' K*' 



of Acadie, having shot his last moose but a few weeks before he rested . i i;i 



from ft life of singular adventure and toil. Requiescat in pace. -" «■( 



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