STILL-HUNTING 



"3 



knowing that the wind favors the moose, makes a 

 loop, MNO, the loop having a radius of a quarter 

 of a mile or more. He finds, however, that the 

 moose is still ahead of him. He may make several 

 such loops before heading the animal. When he 

 makes the loop OPQ without coming upon the 

 track, he assumes that he has the leeward position, 

 and begins a series of zigzags, QRS, to hunt out 

 the moose from the leeward side, as before. At 

 S he ought to get a shot. 



Of course, at O, or anywhere else, for that mat- 

 ter, the hunter may find that he has by chance 

 come too close to the moose, where perhaps a 

 thicket shielded him from view, and where the 

 moose had the leeward position. In this case 

 he may have to content himself with a running 

 shot — or merely with an opportunity to measure 

 on the ground the long strides which an unseen 

 but frightened moose makes when a favoring 

 breeze has brought to his nostrils the dreaded 

 human scent. A breaking stick under the hunter's 

 foot may similarly bring to naught a stalk which 

 has been in other respects most skillfully managed. 

 It is this uncertainty, this necessity for keeping 

 every sense and every nerve keenly on the alert, 

 that makes still-hunting in the moose country 

 the finest sport that America affords. 



