rae cele IP 
Cixe, 
I read with great interest the article in 
your magazine by H. BE. Lee: entitled 
“Alaskan Big .Game.’~ Great credit is 
due Mr. Lee. He has written a clever 
article and though he has shown the spirit 
of the true sportsman, he has promulgat- 
ed theories that should sink deep into the 
hearts of all true men. He has practically 
raised a protest against the wholesale 
slaughter of innocent animals. He has 
denounced the hunting of moose as a 
pastime which is closely allied to the work 
of the butcher. Though it is necessary 
to kill animals for our use, seeing that 
the great First Cause has so arranged that 
one life should be sacrificed for the main- 
tenance of another. Yet in this advanced 
age of thought it is strange that we should 
take delight in doing that which seems 
to me to be one of the hardest conditions 
of living, namely, to take the lives of 
dumb animals. For my part, though I 
encourage sport in the belief that the 
very associations are beneficial to man, 
yet I. deprecate the unnecessary slaying 
of moose, the monarchs of our Northern 
wilds. 
It is not, as Mr. Lee says, as if the poor 
creatures were fierce, bloodthirsty beasts, 
the slaying of which would contain an ele- 
ment of heroism. There is about as much 
danger in killing a moose as in the kill- 
ing of an ordinary barnyard cow. I fear 
that by so expressing myself I may be 
laying myself open to a charge of treach- 
ery to the fraternity of sportsmen, but 
RECREATION has already preached a new 
doctrine on sport, and all praise and credit 
is due it on that account. All honor to 
the man who has suggested the new idea 
of hunting with a camera instead of a rifle. 
MOOSE 
FARR. 
I do not say we should deprive ourselves 
of necessary meat, but I do say the true 
sportsman takes more delight in seeing 
these wild animals in their natural state 
than in the killing of them. 
As long as they are there he feels and 
knows that nature reigns supreme. I 
have an especial affection for moose, for 
I once owned one as a pet. “Moosie,” 
we called him. He was a tiny little crea- 
ture when brought to us, and for want of 
a better place in which to keep him, I put 
-him in with my calves, with whom he soon 
began to play and to whom he soon be- 
came strongly attached. I sold the calves, 
after a time, and then there was a sorrow- 
ful, woebegone moose. He bawled for 2 
days in misery, nor would he be comfort- 
ed, until he apparently transferred his 
affections to me. I let him roam at his 
404 
own sweet will, not caring even if he 
wandered away, for I hated to see the 
poor beast in misery; but he did not go. 
He followed me about like a dog, and 
even when after a time he grew a: trifle 
more independent and would wander off — 
the call or, +s vhow@sies 
Moosie,” would bring him home on a 
trot. He would come into the dining 
room and steal the bread off the dining 
room table. He vexed my good wife near- 
ly to tears by eating downa calla lily which 
the poor little cha» probably mistook for 
a water lily. But the strangest freak af 
Moosie was on All Hallow E’en. The 
children had procured a tub in which to 
dive for apples, but as no apples either 
grew or could be procured on Jake Tam- 
iscamingue in those days, when the Hud- 
in the woods 
son’s Bay Company was paramount and | - 
an employee of it, we were obliged to 
substitute onions. 
The children dived pepentediie with in- 
different success, when suddenly there 
came a sound at the door. The latch was 
lifted, the door was opened and _ lo, 
“Moosie” appeared. He gazed around in 
a friendly, how-do-you-do kind of way 
for .a while. Then his eye caught the 
tub, with the queer little round things 
Hoating amit. 
He went up to it, and attempted to 
catch an onion, with nv better success 
than the children had. Again and again 
he tried, but still the onion bobbed away. 
At last he got mad and down on his knees 
he went. With his mouth he gently pressed 
the onion to the bottom of the tub, and 
then he had it. Nor did he cease until 
every onion was swept up. We were too 
much amused to stop him, so we simply 
looked on and laughed, though the chil- 
dren were a little indignant at losing all — 
their onions. 
Moosie had his likes and dislikes. Some 
children dared not go near him. Indeed, 
the sight of one boy, who had evidently 
teased him, was especially irritating to 
him. If he came near, the moose would 
give a cry of rage, raise himself on his 
hind legs and try to strike him with his 
fore feet, which is the offensive and de- 
fensive method peculiar to the moose. 
Our pet went to Silver Heights, the 
residence of Wm. D. A. Smith, where he 
died, the victim of kindness and ignor- 
ance combined; for they fed him on hay 
and oats—all he could eat—while the nat- 
ural food of the moose is the twigs of the 
willow and the poplar. 
J 4 
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