MOOSE HUNTING IN CANADA. 



Dropping into the rooms of the New 

 York Camera Club, one evening, 

 not long since, I met Mr. L. C. Ivory, 

 freight agent of the Rock Island railway, 

 who informed me that he had just re- 

 turned from a hunting trip in Canada. 



" Were you successful ?" I asked. 



" Well, I should say yes. I killed a 

 magnificent bull moose, and what is 

 just as interesting and valuable, to us, 

 we got some fine photographs of him, of 

 our camp, etc." 



u Then you carried a camera ?" 



" Certainly. I hope you don't think 

 I would go into the woods without one. 

 No, sir. I should as soon think of leav- 

 ing my rifle behind." 



" Tell me all about your trip. When 

 did you leave New York, by what route 

 and who went with you ?" 



" Mr. Walter L. Pierce, of New York, 

 was my companion, We left here Sep- 

 tember 15th, went over the New York 

 Central and Delaware and Hudson, via 

 Rouse's Point, to Montreal ; thence 

 over the Canadian Pacific railway, three 

 hundred miles west to Deux Rivieres, 

 Ontario. We then teamed about sixteen 

 miles, crossing into Quebec to a lumber 

 depot, thence by canoe and portage 

 some twenty or thirty miles farther 

 north to Hamilton lake, where we esta- 

 blished our camp." 



' Did you carry a tent, or depend on 

 cabins ?" 



" We carried three small tents — one 

 for ourselves, one for the guides and one 

 for our dunnage." 



" Were you lucky in getting guides ?" 



" Yes. We had George Crawford and 

 Peter Le Claire, of Mattawa, Ontario ; 

 both good guides and good hunters." 



" How long did you hunt before get- 

 ting a shot ?" 



" We reached camp on the evening of 

 the eighteenth, but did not hunt that 

 night, and nearly all the remainder of 

 the week it was stormy. On the twenty- 

 fifth it cleared, and LeClaire and I 

 started out to make a call, so to speak. 

 We went about three miles down the 

 lake in our canoe. Finally we reached 

 a point on a small bar, at the farther 



end of the lake, at just about sun- 

 down — and I at once sent out my 

 first call." 



*' Did you get an answer ?" 



" No. We waited for a quarter of an 

 hour in silence and in almost breathless 

 suspense, but no response came. Then 

 I again placed the bark horn to my 

 mouth, and swinging it about in a series 

 of circles, first high and then low, sent out 

 another long-drawn wail — ostensibly 

 that of the cow moose when summoning 

 her mate. This time we waited but an 

 instant, when there came, wafted on the 

 soft evening breeze, from away back in 

 the forest, that most musical, thrilling, 

 soul stirring of all sounds that ever greets 

 a hunter's ear — the answering roar or 

 grunt of a bull moose. Instantly our 

 blood was leaping through our veins as 

 if we stood on a great electric generator; 

 yet we dare not move or speak. I lifted 

 the bark once more and sent forth 

 another message to the great cervus, to 

 let him know that his ladylove had heard 

 him, and awaited his coming. 



"Then there was another long wait — 

 another period of painful, silent suspense. 

 Finally we heard, far back in the forest, 

 a faint disturbance. Our ears were 

 strained until they ached. Then a twig 

 snapped ; but the sound was so faint 

 that had the silence about us not been 

 like that of an Egyptian tomb we should 

 not have heard it. Then there was a 

 peculiar raking sound, as of a brush 

 sweeping across your canvas coat. Yes, 

 the great beast is coming to find his 

 mate — he hopes ; to meet his death, we 

 hope. 



" Old man, you may talk about your 

 grizzly hunting and your tiger hunting, 

 and all the other dangerous sport ; but 

 until you hear a bull moose coming 

 through a thick woods, directly toward 

 your hiding place, and try to keep cool 

 enough to shoot him when he shows up, 

 you will never know just how many tons 

 of iron it requires to hold a man down 

 to the earth at such a time. 



"Well, the noise became louder and 

 louder until it seemed as if there must be 

 a regiment of cavalry charging us. We 



