One Season's Game-Bag wtth Camera 



415 



for the third time came to the surface, 

 I fired a second flash, and then in a fit of 

 carelessness talked too loudly, where- 

 upon, with a rush the big animal pulled 

 himself upon the bank, and was swal- 

 lowed in the darkness of the summer 

 night. 



Year after year I had similar exper- 

 iences, always to find that it was an ex- 

 ception not to obtain at least two photo- 

 graphs of the same moose at night; a 

 thing that had never happened with the 

 white-tail deer in nearly twenty years. 



But in New Brunswick the real expla- 

 nation came for this supposed belliger- 

 ency of the moose at night. One even- 

 ing, with Adam in the stern, his son in 

 the middle, and myself behind the light, 

 we paddled toward a large bull feeding 

 in the center of the shallow lake (page 

 410). When thirty feet away, the head 

 went out of sight, and we could have 

 passed over the large antlers had we 

 tried. When the flash went off he 

 showed no concern, so holding our posi- 

 tion I prepared and fired a second flash. 

 But when for the third time I pulled the 

 trigger the cap alone exploded with a 

 sharp crack. In a mightly swirl the big 

 animal, alarmed at the snapping sound 

 behind the light, swam rapidly away to 

 the inlet of the lake. 



Recapping the flash, we paddled in the 

 direction he had gone, and soon saw him 

 facing the light and in about two feet of 

 water close by the bushes (page 418) . 

 Again the flash was fired but, showing 

 little concern, he began walking up the 

 stream, while the paddlers continued to 

 keep him in sight while I prepared for 

 the fourth flash, aside from the one that 

 missed. Just as he entered a broad 

 pool — famous for trout — and with only 

 his big antlers partly showing over the 

 body, I let go the flash, for never before 

 had I been given a chance to picture the 

 retreating form of a moose at night. 



In the fog of smoke before the jack I 

 heard a great splash — then another — 

 while a deluge of cold water drenched 

 the cameras and myself, and there, stand- 

 ing within four feet of the jack — the big 

 head towering seven feet above the 



canoe — stood the bull, looking not down 

 into the light, but beyond as though pre- 

 paring for another spring. 



It certainly seemed time to do some- 

 thing, so, half rising, I waved my cap 

 before his astonished eyes and gave a yell 

 that could have been heard a mile or 

 more. This was sufficient, for with an 

 easy lope he entered the bushes upon our 

 immediate left, and was seen no more. 

 By this time Moore was howling with de- 

 light and making some remarks about the 

 penetrating character of my voice, all of 

 which I told him might be accounted for 

 according to the end of the canoe one was 

 in at the time. By an amusing coinci- 

 dence this lively bombardment of a sub- 

 ject of King Edward's occurred on the 

 night of July 4, and was in keeping with 

 the pyrotechnic celebrations occurring 

 the same evening throughout the states. 



Yet this adventure explained it all and 

 made finally clear what I had long sus- 

 pected. The vivid flash was only seen 

 by the moose on the bushes ahead, hence 

 its sudden retreat ; the cow that appar- 

 ently charged our light in Canada, as the 

 picture shows, was facing away from us ; 

 the bull that my old hunting companion 

 shot at was standing, stern foremost, gaz- 

 ing at the diffused light of the jack on 

 the bushes beyond, and the sudden rifle 

 shot sent him away from the apparent 

 source of danger in front and thus down 

 upon the canoe. I then remembered that 

 in five or six instances all the white-tail 

 deer which had ever thrown water into 

 the boat when dashing madly by us, in 

 each and every case, were looking into the 

 forest at the wavering light of the jack 

 upon the trees or bushes, so when the ex- 

 plosion came they instinctively rushed 

 into the water away from the terrifying 

 shadows of the forest. On the other 

 hand, in the hundreds of flashes fired di- 

 rectly into the faces of deer, moose, elk, 

 and other wild animals, they never in a 

 single instance charged forward after the 

 flash was fired. 



Hence avoid taking a flash or crack 

 from the rifle at a moose when facing 

 away from the jack, or otherwise prepare 

 for a possible collision, more or less dan- 



