I 24 Ways of Wood Folk. 



silence, while the rush of the salmon pool near and 

 the sigh of the night wind in the spruces were lulling 

 us to sleep as we ate, a sound suddenly filled the 

 forest, and was gone. Strangely enough, we pro- 

 nounced the word moose together, though neither 

 of us had ever heard the sound before. ' Like a 

 gun in a fog ' would describe the sound to me better 

 than anything else, though after hearing it many 

 times the simile is not at all accurate. This first 

 indefinite sound is heard early in the season. Later 

 it is prolonged and more definite, and often repeated 

 as I have given it. 



The answer of the bull varies but little. It is a 

 short, hoarse, grunting roar, frightfully ugly when 

 close at hand, and leaving no doubt as to the mood 

 he is in. Sometimes when a bull is shy, and the 

 hunter thinks he is near and listening, though no 

 sound gives any idea of his whereabouts, he follows 

 the bellow of the cow by the short roar of the bull, 

 at the same time snapping the sticks under his feet, 

 and thrashing the bushes with a club. Then, if the 

 bull answers, look out. Jealous, and fighting mad, 

 he hurls himself out of his concealment and rushes 

 straight in to meet his rival. Once aroused in this way 

 he heeds no danger, and the eye must be clear and 

 the muscles steady to stop him surely ere he reaches 

 the thicket where the hunter is concealed. Moon- 



