282 
FOREST AND STREAM 
gone! “De dam win', Bargain lie smell us,” is Louis'only 
ejaculation. Hurilly lmve w« got over our disappointment 
enough to uncock the guns, when a squirrel-call from 
John's toee, and a stealthy motion of his hand, cause us to 
look in an opposite direction. At his height from the 
ground he has detected the sound of a breaking twig, and 
immediately, upon looking around, we observe the cause, 
A three-year old “sneaker,” afraid to “speak” while the 
big bull was so near, has walked up within thirty yards. 
1 give him one hall from my Riley, and have the satisfac¬ 
tion of seeing him fall dead, after a short rush of about 
forty yards, shot Lhrough the heart. To castrate him is the 
Indian’s first care after cutting his throat, and then heis 
split from brisket to liams, and disemboweled. We start 
tlie skiu on each side of the opening, bed him down on 
each side with spruce bows, lay his horns fairly under his 
bond, take out the kidneys and tenderloins, and leave him 
on his back while we return to camp to see how he tastes 
According to custom, John names him “Tom Tigny." 
Soon tbo two frying-pans are hissing on the coals. The 
savory onion astonishes the olfactories of our moose- 
birds. The coffee bubbles and boils, adding its aroma to 
nil the good smells of woodland morning. The bread 
crumbs are carefully sprinkled on the fast-browning meat, 
and a aoupcon of Worcester and pioch of curry added; 
fried potatoes, and fairly good bread and butter from Mrs. 
Dunlap’s dairy are spread on the cleanly-hewn board, and 
vim it vis to my dark-skinned friends, I squat down on the 
fresh fir boughs td eat a breakfast that even Lucullua never 
conceived nor imagined. About eleven o'clock we return 
to our moose; he is skinned and quartered. Being but a 
three-year old his horns are cut off with os fronds attached. 
The hide is stretched on a cross-pole, hair side in, to 
dry, and the meal is hung on the lopped branches of an 
adjacent pine. The fierce autumnal sun soon envelops 
the meat iu a dry membranous cuticle, impervious to fly 
blows, and here (bar rain or accident) it can remain a week 
without taint. The offal is then buried deep in the moss 
and rocked over, and we trudge back to camp laden with 
mouflie, lip, steak, and marrow-bones. A gorgeous din¬ 
ner follows—soup, a steak with marrow, and boiled pota¬ 
toes, a roast partridge, an apple or two found iu the potato 
bag, chocolate, and the post prandial pipe go to satisfy the 
cravings of nature, and while Louis washes up, John and 
1 discuss our next move. We eleet to go ubout one and a 
half miles from camp in the direction of Tom Tigny 
Lake, and at live o’clock P. M. we start, taking coffee for 
gilpper and early breakfast, and our blankets for the 
night. 
About six'o’clock it was dead calm, and having reached 
our destination, Tom Tigny landing place, John mounts 
his ‘‘callin’ tree,” and the enchantment begins. We soon 
get two answers, both in the same direction. One is evi¬ 
dently coming confidently, and in proportion as he nears 
us the rival seems to speak louder and louder. The whole 
is soon explained. The bawl of a cow is heard! The 
master bull immediately ceases to advance towards us and 
hastens back to his fiance whom the other moose is rapidly 
elosiug with, but not with sufficient speed to anticipate the 
return, of the favorite. How begins a battle royal. As 
the rivals approach tho object of “their amorous wish" 
their challenges grow louder and more frequent, and Boon 
ihc crash and rattle of horns (for the sound much resem¬ 
bles file filing of musketry) is heard. The combatants 
separate and close again repeatedly, till after several sharp 
charges one is heard retreating, rapidly pursued by his 
victorious foe. We hear the self satisfied grunts of the 
latter as he rejoins the partner of his joys, whose short 
sharp bawl soon proclaims the reward of valor. John 
cornea down from his tree, well satisfied with the row he 
has kicked up, and says: “Sartain good many sneakers 
roan' diu ole cow. Pretty big moose got likin’; maybe 
he'lL come mornin’; if big one don’t come we’ll creep dat 
ole-and kill dat master bull when wind rises.” Oui - 
Jean-to is very snug, and though the night was cold we 
slept well. John sees the morning star, and wakes camp 
up early; and while Louis gets a cup of coffee ready, we 
light a pipe (why is it every one can smoke before break¬ 
fast in the woods)* and plan how to manage our moose if 
he comes this way or that. The morning is very cold, 
and We are certain, therefore, of calling our quarry with¬ 
out much delay. At the first call we get au answer, and 
in less than half an hour we can almost see him, so close 
has he come. We can hear his huge lips smack as he 
opens his mouth to answer, and soon a puff of vapor is 
emitted from the edge of the copse where he stands to 
listen for the last time, as with a loud “woagh” a huge bull 
with mane erect and frothing mouth, his sides steaming 
With melted hoar frost, steps boldly forth upon the little 
glade on which we are calling. He stands a moment and 
“niffs the ground for tracks, looking fiercely and expect¬ 
antly around; another moment, and with head thrown 
forward, and bristles erect, lie advances across the open, 
loudly challenging. He is broadside on now, and just ten 
yards from the clump of wild azalea, behind which Louis 
and I are concealod. John stops him by giving one “bull 
call.” He looks round ready to face his rival. “Now,” 
says Louis, and the old double-barrel rings out right and 
left. Away he goes. No answer. No “barking” now, 
but plenty of crashing and noise as he tears through the 
low maples and brushwood. After a short pursuit we 
come up to him, the blood gushing from his mouth as he 
glares around in the agony of death. If he moves another 
B lop lie falls, Louis sees the bullet holes through and 
Through, just about two inches behind the heart, and close 
together, und knows his lungs are full of blood. He 
walks up behind him and gives him a shove with the butt 
of the rittc. Down he goes, and dies without a struggle. 
YVe pursue the same course with our meat, and John calls 
our second moose “Morning Glory." I’m thinking his 
heart turned back from the flesh pots of Blue Hill to the 
firewater of the Bridgewater bar when he so appositely 
named that moose. Ou our return to camp we found 
Peter, Paul, and his son Tom, and right glad we were to 
give them camp room. Peter could help us on shares, and 
Tom would be a good baud to run ouL for teams when wo 
had got through our hunt. Being now strong handed we 
determined to change camp; bo, taking all our equipage, 
we moved further in along the path about a mile and a 
half, and spread our cotton lean-to ou the borders of an 
immense bog about two miles square, in the centre of 
•which lies Mossy Lake, just half way between Blue Hill 
and another elevation of about the same altitude, called, 
from Hs resemblance to the shape of that animal, “The 
Porcupine.” Plights of black duck visit this lake every 
evening, and. as there were several beaver houses upon it, 
wo promised ourselves good sport ou windy evenings, 
when calling was useless. Never shall T forget the beauly 
of the sunset, I here had the fortune to behold. Par to the 
north rose The Porcupine, and on the south the dark 
foliage of Blue Hill hounded our vision, while away 
east and west lay the low lands between us and Rossignol 
on the one hand, and Jordan River on the other. This iB 
the chosen habitat of the moose in autumn, and upon the 
vast bogs there abounding herds of caribou take up tbeir 
winter quarters. The sun went down in gold, while the 
bright blue of the sky overhead blending with the glow of 
departing day conveyed to the eye those magic hues of pale 
green which are only to he seen in a North American au¬ 
tumn. Rose-colored clouds passed slowly over from the 
west which gradually assumed all the tints of salmon 
color as they neared the eastern horizon. The maples 
which fringed the happy hunting ground were now re¬ 
splendent in all their shades of crimson, beautifully 
contrasting with the yellows of the frost-nipped birches, 
the various greens of the spruce and hemlock, the ruddy 
brown of the oak, and the dark maroon of the sumach 
and moosewood; beneath all these varying colors stretched 
the sombre bog, relieved here and there by islands of 
boulders, stunted spruce and alder whose tops caught the 
glory of the glowing west and added a charm to the land¬ 
scape. The heavy hammering of the great redheaded 
woodpecker could be heard, as afar ofHn the denser woods 
he attacked oak or hemlock with his formidable bill; 
anon the spruce partridge whirrs off ou rapid wing to 
some friendly shelter; numberless ducks come flashing 
into the stilly lake, or pursue one another with loud quacks 
upon its surface; and then we bear the beaver, on the very 
edge of night, as he now and then sounds his alarum with 
blows of his powerful tail. All combiue to form a picture 
of repose, and quiet and solemn grandeur most entrancing 
to tile lover of the beautiful in nature. 
John, intent on hunting, had been calling since six 
o’clock, and tea having been steeped, and pipes lighted we 
other four sat around our farthing dip and applied our 
minds to five and forties. On a sudden Louis assumed an 
attentive attitudejand laconically observing “John's coaxin’" 
handed me my moccasins. YVe stealhily left camp, and, 
carefully picking our way through the thicket, emerged on 
the bog, where we found John sealed midway between two 
diverging moose paths, each being in easy distance, say 
forty yards. John whispered “old hull very handy, 
cornin’ very sly, stoppin’ every two tree steps, listen all 
time.” After we had made ourselves as comfortable as the 
wet bog would permit, John got up, and taking a few steps 
up and down the soggy bog, caused a peculiar sucking 
sound to proceed from the pressure of his moccasins, then 
with his birch bark call close to the ground he emits a low 
plaintive cow-call, answering almost immediately his own 
call by calling like a young bull, “bole bok.” Immediately a 
bold defiant challenge is heard from the foot of Blue Hill, 
and in five minutes 1 hear the sucking sound of his feet in 
the moss, and as I lie full length on tho bog I see a figure 
blacker than the blackness of night (for there was no moon) 
moving between me and Lite northwest sky line on the 
right hand path. John stops him with a bull call, ami 
trusting to the well-known “feel" of my old double barrel 
smooth bore, and aiming low, I let go both barrels in 
quick succession. The moose immediately wheels and 
makes for woods. “Good sign,” says John; “lie don’t 
bark any, and takes back track, guess you hit him four- 
quarters. lie run right off, too;"liit pretty bad.” YVe 
sent Tom to camp for tho torches, which had been got 
ready for water carrying in the night, and took Lire 
path to the edge of the woods. In the darkness, John, 
by torch, found the slippery blood on the dew-be- 
rprinkled bushes, be tasted it to muke sure, he felt 
the height from the ground and said, “guess one bail 
pretty high, odder one must have broke leg.” The torches 
soon came, and it was comparatively easy to follow the 
trail. About 150 yards off we found our moose lying 
down. The off foreleg was broken close below the brisket, 
and he had a bullet through the shoulder blades about 
twelve inches down. Peter had brought his gun out, so, 
while John held Lite torch, I ordered him to give the coup 
de grace. The wounded beast had lifted his head in terror 
and gazed at us, and whether the torch flickered, or tlie 
movement of the head as he again laid it down destroyed 
the aim, I knew not, yet Peter's bullet missed the shot 
between eye and ear, and cut the jugular vein. Now came 
the only occasion ou which I found the “far-offishness of 
terms alces preferable to his proximity.” Iu an instant 
the moose had risen to his feet, the Indians had hidden 
like partridges among the leaves and behind the stumps, 
and John, torch in hand, was “marvelling" off through those 
woods with a degree of style and action wonderful to behold 
I “hooked it” alter John as the torchlight enabled me lo see 
the sticks and protect my eyes, but the devil of it was, the 
moose chose the same pilot. So here I was clearly in view, 
between two fires. 1 never was a good ' ‘sprinter,” but 1 feel 
that! must have shown awonderful flight of speed that, night, 
and happening to have the bark mooBe-call iu my hand, its 
friction against the bushes, closely resembling the sound of 
brushing boms, would as 1 closed ou the fleeing torch-bearer 
impel biin to renewed exertions. Tills went ou for about 
200 yards, wbeu ibe torch getting low, I ran into a white 
alder bush, and remained fast. I called out “John, lie's 
ou lop of me," and drawing my knife, felt, as I could run 
no more, that I’d better light it out. 
Finding his pursuer was I, not the moose, John immedi¬ 
ately ran back, and found me as above described. We 
listened for the moose, but heard no sound, Moving cau¬ 
tiously back about twenty yards we found nu old dead 
bircli from whose trunk and brandies hung quantities of 
dry bark; we lit this, and as the lire arose from the ground, 
lighting up “the dim aisles of the forest,” and shedding its 
radiance around the space of at least an acre, we espied the 
moose (who was forthwith named “the LamphglUer”) 
ijuite dead, about thirty yards off. Peter’s shot, though 
not immediately fatal, had bled him to weakness, and fall¬ 
ing down he had bled to death, YVe did for him a "more 
Indict )” before alluded to, gralloched him, and left him on 
his hack to he further disposed of after morning calling. 
I had now killed three moose in two days, but though the 
second and third were large animals, their heads were not 
considered good enough for preservation enure. They 
had all belonged to the brown or long-legged type of 
moose, and as “yet not one of Ibe shy black, short-legged, 
swamp breed, lmd presented hunselt. There is little doubt 
but that there are two varieties of moose, as there certainly 
are among the hears of Nova Scotia, of whom are the 
brown, long-legged, fierce, cattle stealing, and the jet black 
and shorter-legged breeds which are less fierce, and more 
purely vegetarian and honey-loving in their tastes. My 
anxiety to get a really fine head remained now to be grati¬ 
fied in a most.lingular manner. 
On Wednesday"morning we were up with the morning 
star, and off over the bog to an island nearer its western 
extremity. The wily John was soon pursuing all the 
seductions of his art, but alas and in vain! About eight 
o’clock I looked up to the extreme west of the hog, and 
saw for a moment over its rounding top the Bash or a pair 
of wet horns in the morning sun. I told John, but he was 
sceptical, and so about nine o’clock we went back to oamp 
and lmd breakfast. At ten o'clock- we were all at work 
about “The Lamplighter," and having hung the quarters 
up, one of the men was engaged in cutting down a small 
spruce for a cross pole for the skin, when the chopping of 
the axe was immediately answered, about 400 yards off to 
windward, by the thick, guttural "wottgh” of a big fat. bull. 
I had put on my ammunition boots (an exceedingly good 
walking boot, provided to' the British soldiers) and was 
not equipped for creeping, and it was clear that, 
as the wind had risen a little, the moose must be met, or 
he would get round to leeward of our present locus. So 
John took the call, and going back about 800 yards, mode 
a racket resembling the “mutual confidences” of amorous 
mates; alternately calling “bull” and "cow” and now 
and then breaking a branch. 1 knew that so late in the 
day our moose would keep to the woods, so inking an 
oblique course towards and across the locality of his first 
answer, 1 kept onward to leeward of his probable course; 
in 200 yards Louis, who carried my rifle, saw him at sixty 
yards through an opening. He had heard us, turned, and was 
standing tail to, with his splendid head Half turned to listen. 
I took the rifle, and saw at a glance that the hip shot was 
my only chance; his huge hips and side protected his head, 
so dropping on my knee I aimed at the anus, and carefully 
“drifting" (a term used in target shooting here—B. 8.) off 
about three inches to the left, pulled. When the smoke 
lifted I saw that he- was down. The bullet had broken 
hip and pelvis, and followed the hack-bone to the withers. 
When we got up to him all but his brain was dead, and in 
a few moments more "fait" was all that could have been 
said. 
This moose deserves more than passing notice, and his 
head is now, 1 believe, in Lite rooms of the Gun Club at 
Stephen Grant’s, 8t. James’ street, Loudon, for sale. I 
wish 1 had it here for transmission to the Centennial as the 
proportions were very fine and Mr. Thos. Egnu, of Halifax, 
set it up in a truly natural manner. The bull was ubout 
six years old and extremely large and fat. The prongs 
were all clearly indicated, fifteen on one side aDd fourteen 
on the other. Brow, or fighting prongs, seventeen inches 
long; extreme width, four feet eleven inches. The palms, 
or blades were even, uniform, upright, and very thin. 
The skin as black as jet, and the hull well developed. We 
made a V shaped incision from the rear of eilLier horn, 
meeting well down on the back of the neck; skinning up 
wards from the point of the V we reached the horns and 
worked over the forehead round the horns to the eyes, also 
well down rouud the neck; tbon beginning at mouflie and 
under Up, we worked backwards round the head till we 
met our work upwards; we then cut off the neck at the 
withers, ami Inking off the oh front is willi the horns, slip¬ 
ped the skin off the neck iukL head. This was sailed and 
wrapped round the forehead, and John having shouldered 
it, and gained tho open bog, forgot his dignity and “played 
bull," hooking bushes, &c., all the way back to camp. This 
head was pronounced the finest that bad been iu Halifax 
for thirty years, even surpassing tbo specimen presented to 
tire Prince of YVales. Suffice it to say, it was too large for 
the ball of an ordinary country house, and in an evil, anil 
perhaps impecunious moment, 1 put it iu tlie market. 
My liuut was now over, and it oniy remained lo “get 
out" our meat. Tom was dispatched to Dunlap's forth¬ 
with, and on the Friday evening relumed with two strong 
teams. Meanwhile Peter and I had some heaver shooting, 
and on the morning of our departure homeward John call¬ 
ed two more moose, hut I declined to fire us we hud all the 
meat wo could manage. 
My letter has been so very long that I fee] I have been 
presuming too much ou the patience of your readers, so I 
will briug it to a close. I cannot lay down my pen with¬ 
out a few observations of a general nature. In the firs', 
place there is a thorough and complete freshening up of 
the man tn thus, “curie expedites," re turning to n slate of 
nature at a season of the year when she offers tier richest and 
choicest inducements to recreation. The biacing breeze, 
the bright warm day. the invigorating night. A noble 
quarry, whose senses fur self protection are extremely 
acute, and whose pursuit is not without that, soupeon of 
danger, which adds a charm to sport. YVe killhim at a season 
when ids flesh is most edible, and have the satisfaction of 
knowing that we are not thereby diminishing the main stock. 
And then cast your eyes around upon the beauties which 
nature spreads before you. The sunset, the ever varying 
forest, the crystal lake, the rushing stream, the abounding 
fauna and flora of the woods. Doctors may prescribe tlie 
sea side, or the reacting effect of ocean travel. Give me as 
a panacea my trusty rifle and my faithful Indian, the ic- 
sinous smell of the pine, the fresh camp bed und the de¬ 
lightful abandon of woodland lifein Autumn. How keenly 
we appreciate the comforts of home after such a holiday, 
with what pleasures we recount our adventures or obser¬ 
vations to our little blue-eyed audience, as they gather at 
our knee to listen to our tale. To have hunted, is indeed, 
delightful lo reflect upou—to hunt again is, 1 trust, a 
pleasure to come. 8- 
Jti mloille, Nova ScoUa, 
Giant Pf.au Trees in Texas. —Standing in the orchard 
of a Mr Ellis, in the old Spanish town of Elcearia, in the 
Talley of the Rio Grande, are some of the largest pear 
trees in the World. Prof. S. B. Buckley, State Geologist 
of Texas, measured seme of these trees last summer, and 
he giveB their dimensions in his Report for 1875 as follows: 
"Some have a circumference of from 8 to upwards of 9 
feet al 3 feet from the ground. * * * Col. J. M. More, 
of my party, measured one which has a circumference of 
10 feet, at a height of 6 feet from the ground, a spread of 
limbs of more than 60 feet, and estimated height of about 
50 feet, and iB pyramidal in shape.” These are giant nat¬ 
ural curiosities, and their sizes show that they must have 
been plauted long ago by the Spaniards, who, at a very 
early period, first settled this Upper Rio Grande Valley 
country. _- 
