CHAPTER IV. 
MOOSE-DEER. 
Tuts giant of the deer tribe, although at one time abun- 
dant in all the North-eastern States, at the present time 
holds only a precarious and short-leased existence in the 
northern portion of the State of Maine. However, when 
the Canadian frontier is crossed they become more abun- 
dant, increasing in number till about the fifty-seventh de- 
gree of latitude is reached, above which they are seldom 
found. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the sports- 
man in pursuit of moose would still find a reward for his 
labor; but in that section of country lying to the south of 
James Bay, and stretching westward to Lake Winnipeg, 
this giant deer can be obtained in greater abundance than 
in any other portion of the American continent. 
For their capture two methods are usually adopted: 
first, by calling them up to where the sportsman is con- 
cealed, by imitating the voice of the female, or call of the 
male, through the assistance of a horn of birch-bark; this 
device can only be employed in the still evenings of autumn, 
during the rutting season. So acute is the sense of hear- 
ing in this animal, that the slightest false note on the call 
will send the quarry flying in the reverse direction; thus 
Indian companions are almost necessary to the white hunt- 
er, they, from greater experience, having become adepts in 
its use. The second is to pursue them on snow-shoes after 
a heavy crust has been formed on the snow, through the 
heat of the spring sun by day and the sharp frosts by night. 
As long shots at this quarry are seldom fired, the sports- 
