236 



RECREATION. 



A GREAT LOSS TO SCIENCE. • 



C. T. BORDWELL. 



In the fall of 1901 M. W. Scofield, of 

 Mayville, N. Y., L. D. Farman, of James- 

 town, R. Hews, W. J., William and H. 

 Cornell, of Chautauqua, and I went to 

 Greenville, Me,., where we secured Jim 

 Gray as a guide. We went up Moosehead 

 lake and across the Northeast carry, then 

 by canoe and team 14 miles to where we 

 pitched our tent for a few days' hunting. 

 W. J. Cornell, Schofield and Farman get- 

 ting their fill first, left us and went home. 

 A few days later the others of the party 

 broke camp. Hews and H. Cornell had 

 left camp and were to meet us again at 

 the river or the carry. Jim then told Will 

 and me of a large moose that had been 

 seen many times and by many people, and 

 had always been reported as the king of 

 its kind. It always managed to get away 

 from its pursuers, and therefore the larg- 

 est pair of moose horns known were still 

 on a live moose. 



As our party were short on horns, we 

 concluded to visit the rendezvous of the 

 moose, so on leaving the canoe we started 

 through a thick, tangled growth of fir and 

 cedar. For some time we saw no trace 

 of game, except a few deer tracks. Our 

 march was beginning to be tiresome when 

 we finally came to an opening where at 

 some former time timber had been cut 

 and a camp had been made. The opening 

 had partially grown up with small timber 

 and brush. Across this ooen space, to the 

 left, and on somewhat higher ground, I 

 discovered what at first sight might have 

 been taken for a mule, with its head un- 

 der, or eating out of, a cart box, the kind 

 with flaring top and sides, with many 

 stakes on each side, still higher than the 

 box proper. The animal and the box 

 were end toward us. On seeing it I 

 stopped short, which attracted the atten- 

 tion of Jim, who was next behind me. He 

 looked in the direction and remarked, "It's 

 a moose." I brought my gun up and fired, 

 and before Will could fire it seemed as if I 

 had fired into a mine, causing it to ex- 

 plode. The moose and all in its immediate 

 vicinity seemed to be raised in the air, with 

 sticks, stones and all the accompaniments 

 of an underground explosion. This had 

 settled down long before our consternation 

 at the scene had ceased. When we had 

 sufficiently recovered to make a forward 

 move, we discovered that I had shot well 

 under the moose. The ball had raked its 

 belly nearly the entire length, then passed 

 in and through the heart. The moose had 

 his head lying on a stump, about 2 feet 10 

 inches in diameter, from which extended 

 splits, or slivers, caused by the tree break- 

 ing over before the choppers had cut it 

 entirely off. The moose, in springing back- 

 ward, caught his head between those splits; 

 and with such strength and weight did he 



spring, that it caused the stump to be up- 

 rooted and ail fell in a heap. 



We estimated the weight of the trunk, 

 with stones and roots attached to it, at \i/ A 

 tons, broken and pulled out from the earth, 

 not taking into consideration the pulling 

 strength cf the root, torn from between 

 rocks. 



Then the question arose, what would we 

 do with the moose, or even its head, which 

 we were desirous of preserving, as we felt 

 confident there were no more like it. We 

 were 17 or 18 rods from the Penobscot 

 river, but Jim said even if the head was at 

 the river the canoe would not carry it. We 

 held a council. Jim went a few miles 

 away and got a bateau, which was used as 

 a ferry, and which he said would easily 

 carry V/ 2 tons. Will always carried his 

 hatchet, so we cut a road through to the 

 river. ^ Then, with Will's hunting knife, we 

 took off the cape of the moose up to' the 

 head and there severed the head from the 

 neck leaving the head and cape attached. 

 We then cut poles 5 or 6 inches in diameter 

 peeled them and placed them side by side in 

 pairs, about 28 inches part, making a slide 

 such as timbermen use to slide logs on It 

 was down hill to the river, so we tried to 

 start the head, but as we could not, we cut 

 hand spikes and waited for Jim. After 

 working hard we finally got the head at the 

 end of the skids down to the river bank 

 then we gathered up some of the slide 

 P. .!" an <J extended them over the bateau. 

 With pulling, pushing and the use of hand 

 spikes we got the head over the side of 

 the bateau, when the timber broke, letting 

 the head sink into the gunwale. That 

 caused the bateau to careen iust enough to 

 ship a little water, when the head gently 

 rolled outside and sank in 20 to 30 feet of 

 swiftly running water. We did not get the 

 measure of the horns, as the only meas- 

 ure we had with us was a foot rule. 



Will and I were both with Van Dyke, of 

 Red Lodge, in the fall of 1900, know him 

 well and believe all he says in reference 

 to the elk that broke the tree in its flight 

 Is not the turning over of the stump truly 

 remarkable? 



T Decatur, 111. 



1 take pleasure in acknowledging the re- 

 ceipt of cartridge belt and ampliscopes. 

 Both are choice premiums and it is a mys- 

 tery to^ all how you can offer such valu- 

 able prizes. 



W. E. Marsh, Sintaluta, Assa. 



I received the cartridge belt. It is per- 

 fectly satisfactory and better than I ex- 

 pected. I have had premiums from other 

 magazines and they were not worth house? 

 room. 



Harry Smith, Goshen, N. Y, 



