The Moose 323 



country ahead, locating nothing more than the 

 trail for some distance through the snow. I fol- 

 lowed this for a short space, and came to where 

 the animals had been running, making great 

 strides. I calculated that it was all up with me, 

 but decided to follow their tracks around a point 

 that I might get one more look in the direction 

 they had gone, the perfectly natural instinct of 

 a hunter. This was a fatal move; they had 

 stopped short, and were lying down just behind 

 a bunch of spruce not three hundred yards from 

 where they had left a walk. On my approach 

 they said good-by through this clump of pines 

 which screened them from a rifle ball. 



A breezy day is always best for moose hunting, 

 as the bluster of the wind makes it unnecessary 

 for the hunter to be absolutely noiseless. The 

 same general principles may be applied in hunt- 

 ing moose in any part of their country — pre- 

 suming that the hunter stalks his own game 

 unsupported by guides or Indians. Few hunters 

 who visit the Maine woods for moose acquire 

 knowledge of the hunt that would be very help- 

 ful to them, if thrown upon their own resources 

 in trackless regions of great extent. There is no 

 game field in America that so nearly affords the 

 hunter a parlor moose hunt as the woods of 

 Maine ; but the man who simply enjoys camp 

 life, and is not especially desirous of becoming 



