Moose Calling. 131 



wilderness. The scattered thickets on such plains 

 are, without doubt, the islands of the ancient lakes 

 that once covered them. Here the hunter collects a 

 thick nest of dry moss and fir tips at sundown, and 

 spreads the thick blanket that he has brought on his 

 back all the weary way from camp ; for without it 

 the cold of the autumn night would be unendurable 

 to one who can neither light a fire nor move about to 

 get warm. When a bull answers a call from such a 

 spot he will generally circle the barren, just within 

 the edge of the surrounding forest, and unless enraged 

 by jealousy will seldom venture far out into the open. 

 This tearfulness of the open characterizes the moose 

 in all places and seasons. He is a creature of the 

 forest, never at ease unless within quick reach of its 

 protection. 



An exciting incident happened to Mitchell, my 

 Indian guide, one autumn, while hunting on one of 

 these barrens with a sportsman whom he was guiding. 

 He was moose calling one night from a thicket near 

 the middle of a narrow barren. No answer came to 

 his repeated calling, though for an hour or more he 

 had felt quite sure that a bull was within hearing, 

 somewhere within the dark fringe of forest. He was 

 about to try the roar of the bull, when it suddenly 

 burst out of the woods behind them, in exactly the 

 opposite quarter from that in which they believed 



