4 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jdlt 7, 1892. 



MOOSE HUNTING. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Doubtless a good many sportsmen are thinking as the 

 season approaches of that bull moose they have been 

 counting on killing on many of the trips they have made. 



I have made three trips to Maine in the late fall and 

 early winter, killing caribou and deer, but seeing no 

 signs of moose, although I was told I should be quite sure 

 of finding them. Last winter I went to the headwaters 

 of the Aroostook. I killed two caz'ibou one morning 

 before 9 o'clock, and could easily have shot six at the 

 time, as there were six in the drove and none of them 

 offered to run until I walked toward them after killing 

 the two. I also killed on this trip a very handsome deer, 

 a buck with ten points, his body being" nearly all pm'e 

 white, a patch of gray on back near shoulders, and some 

 gray on neck and head, the rest entirely white. 



I have also been on three trips to Nova Scotia, twice in 

 calling time and once still-hunting in December. Twice 

 there were two in the party, and once three besides our 

 Indians. We killed six moose and four bears. I killed 

 two of the moose and the four bears, and could easily 

 have killed another moose. As for signs, I never ex- 

 pected to see so many moose, so many tracks, beds and 

 signs of browsing, or to hear so many bulls and cows 

 calling. I have had three bulls answer our call at once: 

 three times I have had them within from 50 to 100yds,, 

 when it was too dark to see them. In fact sometimes 

 there seemed to be too many, there were so many tracks, 

 I couldn't tell where they went, and in calling some 

 would be sure to come up to leeward and spoil all chances 

 of a shot. 



Last fall when on the way to Nova Scotia I met a young 

 man who was going on his second trip moose hunting. 

 He told me about 

 his first, saying he 

 got three shots at 

 three bulls, wound- 

 ing them all, but 

 failing to get any of 

 them, although' he 

 followed them long 

 distances. He said 

 he was getting dis- 

 couraged, he could 

 not get a bullet in 

 the right place. 

 However, he got a 

 shot at a fourth, 

 which he killed. I 

 had some letters 

 from him telling of 

 his hunt last year. 

 He said they had 

 been calling one 

 morning without 

 getting an answer, 

 and had decided to 

 give it up for that 

 day and return to 

 the main camp. He 

 was lying down 

 reading, while his 

 men were packing 

 up the things; hap- 

 pening to look up he 

 saw a large bull 

 standing on the edge 

 of some timber 

 about 300yds. away 

 looking at them. He 

 shot at and hit 

 him somewhere, fol- 

 lowed him two miles 

 and lost him. It 

 seemed like the 

 same old experience 

 of the previous year, 

 A few days later 

 they were crossing 

 a barren when his 



man saw something sticking up out of the brush, which 

 he thonght looked like the tips of a moose's horns. They 

 stopped and watched, and after a while a very large bull 

 got up and walked out on the open ground. The hunter 

 shot at him at about 200yds. and put a bullet through his 

 lungs; the moose ran some 200yds. and dropped dead. 

 He was an exceptionally large one with a first-rate set of 

 antlers. My correspondent said he was satisfied and did 

 not want to kill any more moose. 



Again I have talked with men who have been to Nova 

 Scotia, who said they found moose very scarce. I do not 

 know what part of the Province they went to or what 

 sort of guides they had. What I have stated regarding 

 my experience are facts. 



Now, as to the guides and callers in the Province, most 

 of thern. are Mic-mac Indians. A few of them are good, 

 the majority are not. Many of them are very unreliable, 

 and if you engage them in advance you are 'very hkely 

 not to find them when you arrive. Many of them will 

 take you out for so much a day, and will not try to get 

 you shots; their main object will be to keep you in camp 

 for as many days as they can. They are shiftless and 

 lazy about camp, and if you leave it to them to provide 

 an outfit and things necessary for a camp, you will find 

 they have forgotten about every thing you will need. If 

 you take a supply of liquor along they will be sure to 

 take that and do their share of drinking it. 



There are exceptions, however. Personally I know 

 three Indians who are first-rate callers and good still- 

 hunters, and who will try their best to get shots for the 

 party. One of them has been in our party on all the 

 trips, and in any part of the country that he knows I 

 wouldn't ask for a better caller or still-htmter. Such 

 Indians as these I refer to are scarce, and they must be 

 engaged some time in advance, and if you know how to 

 handle them you will get along all right. The Indian I 

 refer to paxticularly told me about a man he had out on 

 a hunting trip. He was very anxious to get a good cari- 

 bou head (caribou at that time being quite plenty in 

 Nova Scotia), He got several easy shots at moose and 

 missed them all. The Indian had some doubt about his 

 being able to hit a caribou, but as he was promised quite 

 a sum of money extra if his man killed one, he worked 

 hard to get him a shot. One day when traveling up a 

 bog they came suddenly on a caribou with a fine set of 



horns. He was about 80yds. away looking at them. The 

 Indian whispered, "Now is your chance." His man fired 

 three shots and missed every time, and away went the 

 caribou. That night in camp the Indian said: "How 

 much longer do you want to staj?" "Two weeks," said 

 the man. "All right," said the Indian, "I stay two weeks 

 longer, but I will not go hunting any more; you pi-omise 

 me big money if you kill caribou ; you no hit that cari- 

 bou to-day, you can't hit one at all"" 



There is one thing more about hunting in Nova Scotia. 

 You need to take out a hunting license for each sports- 

 man in the party. Licenses cost |30 each. A few years 

 ago parties could go without getting a license and were 

 reasonably safe. At present it is very risky to do so, and 

 you are very likely to have a game warden after you. 

 My advice is buy your license or don't go. C. M. Stark. 

 Dun BARTON, N. H., June 27. 



IN A WISCONSIN CAMP. 



[H'l-om a Staff CoiresjJondeJit.l 

 Thk Woods, Wisconsin, July 1.— A study of camp life 

 will establish many simple truths which have not yet be- 

 come axiomatic in popular philosophy. Thus, there are 

 many ways of washing table knives, many of them in- 

 genious, most of .them troublesome; yet it seems to have 

 escaped general knowledge that the only way to clean a 

 greasy knife is to stick it in the ground and then wipe it 

 upon one's trousers leg. Take it also in the matter of 

 coffee. There are many cook books in the land, and 

 each of these will give several ways of making coffee. 

 Your wife's folks will have their way, and every lady 

 visitor will give you her recipe. How singular that the 

 only correct way of making good coffee has never 'been 



A MOOSE HUNTERS' CAMP. 

 From a Photograpli by Col. C^ei/il Clay. 



announced publicly ! A few days in camp will teach it. 

 In the first place, you must never, under any circum- 

 stances, wash the coffee-pot. Every other vessel about 

 the camp should be kept scrupulously clean, but the 

 coffee-pot should never be washed. After each meal the 

 coffee grounds should be emptied out into the end of the 

 fire, and the coffee-j)Ot should be knocked gently against 

 the side-log, in order to disengage to the proper extent 

 the adherent grounds. After this the coffee- pot should 

 be left inverted, about 6ft. from the fireplace, with the 

 lid resting upon the bottom of the pot. This position 

 should be maintained till the next meal, without varia- 

 tion from day to day. 



I am disposed to think that a careful observance of the 

 directions up to this point have most to do with the suc- 

 cess of the coffee, and am certain that the instruction not 

 to wash the coffee-pot is essential. The size of the coffee- 

 pot, contrary to common impression, has nothing what- 

 ever to do with the amount of the coffee to be used, 

 neither has the number of persons at table anything to 

 do with it. You always have a drinking cup about your 

 camp, for instance the porcelain lined or blue granite 

 sort. You take this cup, and pour it full of the ground 

 coffee, so that the top of the heaped up coffee is just level 

 with the rim of the cup. This rule should be followed in 

 all cases,a cup full of ground coffee for each meal, be the 

 drinkers two, four or more. You can put this into the 

 full pot of water before you put the pot on the fire, and 

 so bring it to a boil, or you can boil the water first, then 

 put in the coffee and bring it to a boil again. There seems 

 to be no difference about this. The main skill in 

 making coffee seems to lie in the knocking out of the 

 grounds on the fire log. An unpracticed hand may 

 knock out the grounds too clean or not clean enough, or 

 may leave the pot right side up, for the sun to shine into, 

 in any of which cases failure must be the result. By the 

 observance of the above plain and easy rules, I have 

 never known poor coffee to be made in camp. 



The right kind of cofl'ee-pot is made of sheet iron ,Tiveted, 

 and is wider at the bottom than at the top, so that it is 

 not always tumbling over when you set it on the fire. A 

 proper coffee-pot must be set square down upon the fire. I 

 always have my doubts about the man who suspends his 

 coffee-pot over the fire by means of a gypsy fork, or 

 allows it to depend from a chain or wire, Nine times out j 



of ten that man is a tenderfoot, and builds too big a fire* 

 I used to have a round-bottomed coffee pot which liked 

 to be treated that way, but it is no more in my kit. It was 

 a first-class nuisance, always spilling at the critical 

 moment, and needing besides a bonfire to boil it. The 

 old-timer has a nice, narrow little fire between two side 

 logs, and at this he will boil his coffee, cook a spiderful 

 of bacon and eggs, and broil a bass or a bird, all at the 

 same time, or so nearly synchronously that no one at the 

 table will kick. For "table," read place where the dishes 

 are. The old-timer never burns his hands, either, nor 

 gets red in the face, nor swears while cooking. He does 

 it just as easy, because he knows how. 



The problem of rain in camp is one that occasionally 

 comes up for quick solution. No one can be good- 

 natured when the bedding is saturated. I have seen a 

 great many tents which lacked an appliance as needful 

 as the roof or sides of any tent; that is, a floor cloth, 

 or rather a double floor cloth. We have been in camp 

 about a week and have had very heavy rains often, 

 and rain every day but one, yet om- tent is dry, sweet 

 and clean. First, we have it made with a sad-cloth to 

 spread inside of the edge a little way. Most tents have 

 this sad cloth, and all should have. Lapping over this 

 sad cloth is the bottom floor cloth, in our case made of 

 waterproof tarred canvas, though it can be made of rub- 

 ber. This is just as large as the bottom of the tent. On 

 this lower cloth we spread a foot or so of hay (we have 

 few pine feathers in Western camping), and over all this 

 we strain the upper floor cloth or tent carpet, made of 

 stout duck, and also just as large as the tent floor. On 

 top of this come the blankets, which are always dry and 

 clean. No taking cold in this sort of tent. No hay in 

 the bed clothing, and no muss in the tent. I do not know 

 whether this is anything of a pointer to anybody: but we 



have found the sys- 

 tem exceedingly 

 comfortable and 

 useful. 



An actual week 

 in camp is apt lo 

 take the edge off 

 the keenest sports- 

 man, unless he be a 

 very young one. I 

 mean that he will 

 not care so much to 

 hunt and fish, but 

 will begin to find 

 more of the pleas- 

 ures which are hid- 

 den in the life itself. 

 This morning early 

 one of our party 

 went down to the 

 spring for a pail of 

 water, and in the 

 lake just off the cold 

 water, he saw 18 

 bass, which prob- 

 ably had a lien on 

 the school of min- 

 nows which is a fix- 

 ture nearthe spring. 

 He sat on the bank 

 and watched the 

 graceful antics of 

 the bass, and the 

 thought of his rod 

 never crossed his 

 mind. The other 

 evening we went 

 out for a while with 

 with the fly-rods, 

 and caught IS straw- 

 berry basB and one 

 black baps, but now 

 we lie on the bluff 

 at sundown and 

 watch the rises 

 which dot the lake, 

 and comment on the 

 big fellows and enjoy the panorama and the play of 

 nature without a wish to act a part therein other than 

 that of those who wait; in passiveness. 



This morning everybody left camp but myself, and I 

 had a little house- cleaning time, after which I set forth, 

 without a scruple of conscience, to transfer to our wood- 

 pile a few hardwood rails from a certain ancient fence I 

 had discovered back in the woods. It seems to come 

 sort of natural to a fellow to steal rails for camp wood, 

 and they certainly do burn better than hit-or-misa fuel 

 from the woods. 



I was well up the hill from my second journey when I 

 noticed a little motion high up in a tree, and presently 

 made out a fine red fox-squirrel, with a gallant tail. He 

 saw me at the same time, and we concluded to watch 

 each other for a while. The watching lasted probably 

 an hour, and for my part I enjoyed it hugely. On the 

 part of the squirrel it was plainly defensive, and it is a 

 question whether he liked it so well. If I had been 

 obliged to hang head downward from a limb, in imitation 

 of a dried branch or a bump upon a tree trunk, ten min- 

 utes at a time, I probably would not have thought it an 

 unmixed pleasure. The squirrel did this, and did it per- 

 fectly. He never quivered in a muscle. It was his 

 method of defense and it was well planned, for had I not 

 watched him take this attitude, I could never have de- 

 tected him at all, away up in the tree. As a courtesy to 

 the squirrel, I moved a little bit, and in a flash he was 

 gone. I lay flat on my back and searched the tree over 

 for five minutes before I found him. His curiosity had 

 been too much for him. He had gone higher up in the 

 tree and had concealed even his tell-tale tail, but he 

 must have an eye on the intruder. I could just see his 

 head sticking out from a crotch, motionless as before, 

 and seemingly part of the tree, with which the gray of 

 the upper body color blended perfectly. 



Who has not seen and wondered at this fine provision 

 of nature for her helpless children, which makes them 

 take on the semblance of the environing objects? Who 

 has not marveled at Bob White, lost near by in the dry 

 leaves, or wondered that the prairie chicken could hide 

 in the scanty stubble almost at the hunter's feet? My 

 squirrel aroused admiration in my heart. It was only his 

 sharp, erect little ear that betrayed him. It is the large 

 and prominent eye of the hare which reveals it when it 



