iMOOSE-CALLTNG. 117 





murks the flight of the startled moose, the late comrades ;' 



of our noble bull. I 



" Pretty handy on to five feet," said John, as he with % 



difficulty raised tlie ponderous head from the bushes, to i 



display the breadth of the antlers ; " that's a great moose, 

 old feller, that ; hind-cpiarters weigh goin' on for a hun- 

 dred and fifty weight ea(.'h ; we have to get two or three 

 smart hands to back him out." 



The night wiis now far advanced, and it was with 

 well-earned satisfaction th;it we stretched ourselves in 

 front of a roaring fire, wrapping our blankets tightly 

 round us. Though frosty, it was clear and calm ; we 

 needed no camp, and Jolni dragged u}) log after log of 

 the dead dry tindu'r, whicli \v;is strewed in plentiful 

 confusion over the barren, until we had a fire large 

 enough to have roasted our moose Avhole. The kettle, 

 tilled from the brook below in the swamp, soon boiled, 

 and after a ri'frcshing cu]) ;uid a l)iscuita-])iece, we finally 

 tightened our blankets round oui- forms, and, with })ipes 

 in our mouths, gradually dozed off. 



Towards the morninii is the coldest time of the iii<Tht> 

 and I more than once awoke from the cold, and went on 

 the barren for fresh fuel to supply the (piickly-decaying 

 end)ers. There was the same solenm stillness over the 

 face of that wihl scene : the moon was down long since, 

 but a few brilliant streamers of tlu' aurora played in the 

 cU'ar sk'y in the north, and by their light I could just 

 discern the great dark foi'm of the moose in the bushes, 

 all covered with the thii'k rime frost, and guarded by 

 two colossal stems, which pointed sternly at the victim 

 with their whitened branches, as if to demand vengeance 

 for the death of the forest monarch. At intervals the 





