An Evening Call in Moose Land 283 
his fore feet, and peers nearsightedly into the darkness to discover the strange intruders; 
but seeing nothing and still sniffing that strange smell which instinct, and too often 
painful experience, have taught him means danger, he tempers his martial valor with 
discretion, turns, and is off like a Derby winner. 
On one occasion I came upon a pair in a retired bay in Nictor Lake. Whether it 
was because he was young and foolish, or that the lady’s presence imposed an obligation 
(This specimen is a nearly full-grown female.) 
for a more persistent defiance, certain it is that the bull stationed himself on a point 
of land and slanged me with most opprobrious bellowings for quite five minutes. 
Then, since I declined to come ashore and he was equally unwilling to come into deep 
water after me, he swaggered away shaking his head, like a bully who has just 
successfully carried through a bluff. 
