116 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



with liis luuid for us to iciiiaiii (luict, nud I at once 

 divined his ol)ject ; ho was making for the edge of the 

 woods, sonic hundred yards or so from the direction of 

 the moose. Presently a few loud snappings of dead 

 branches, purposely broken by the Indian as soon as he 

 had reached the covert, was folk)wed i)y the well-coun- 

 terfeited calk The ruse succeeded ; the suspicions of 

 the bull were allayed, and the horns were again dashed 

 against tlu^ stems as he unhesitatingly advanced towards 

 our ambush. At length we can plainly hear his footsteps, 

 and the rustling of the little bushes ; every now and then 

 he utters a low, satisfied grunt to himself, as he winds up 

 the ascent. Now our pulses and heartii beat so, that it 

 becomes a wonder they do not scare the moose, and we 

 grasp the stocks of our rifles tightly as \,o wait for his 

 appearance. Here he comes ! The moonlight just catches 

 the polislied surfaces of his great spreading horns ; a black 

 mountain seems to grow out of the barren in front, and 

 the bull stands innnediately before us, his gigantic pro- 

 portions standing out in bold relief against the sky, and 

 clouds of hot vapour circling from his expansive nostrils, 

 ;»• he pauses for a moment to gaze forward from tlu^ 

 .. . ;jred elevation. He must see the glitter of the moon- 

 light on our barrels as they are raised to the shoulder, 

 but it is too late for I'ctreat ; the sharp cracks of the two 

 rifles proclaim his doom, and as they are lowered the 

 great moose falls heavily over, without a }»ace accom- 

 plished in retreat, instantaneously dead. Our wild yell 

 of triumph was echoed by the Indian from the woods 

 behind, who hastened to join us ; the echoes, so strangely 

 and rudely evoked from the distant forest, gradually fade 

 away, and all is again still, save where a distant crack 



