326 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 23, 1898. 
dni^ md 0m. 
Calling Moose in the Daytime. 
1 HAVE noticed that soine of your contributors have 
spoken of calling moose in tlie daytime as a recent dis- 
covery, and only practiced in New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotja. I know certainly that moose were called in tlie 
daytime in Maine forty years ago; and I believe that 
daytime calling had been practiced long before that. 
I had several times been told by friends of moose com- 
ing to them when chopping in the daytime, having evi- 
denly mistaken the sound for the calling of a cow; but 
I never saw a bull called in the daytime till in September, 
1857, Hiram L. Leonard, the well-known fly-rod maker, 
and myself had on Monday camped on Caribou Lake 
at the mouth of Ragged Stream. Mr. Leonard had in 
less than two days of still-hunting killed four moose 
by tracking them in the moss and leaves. It was now 
Saturday, and as we had fired numerous shots, and had 
our camp-fire burning for a week, it was a most un- 
likely place for calling a moose. The sea, which at day- 
light was too heavy to cross the lake, had by Q in the 
niorning subsided, so that we had packed up and were 
just ready to start when we saw a canoe coming up 
the lake. They proved to be two well-known hunters- 
Joe Diamond and Sam Parker. One of them wished 
Leonard to show him how to call a moose. Leonard for 
fun made all kinds of noises except such as a moose 
could ever be expected to come to, and finally called 
correctly several times. We were not looking for moose, 
as we had no thought of a moose coming in on a rocky 
shore in the daytime, close to a camping place; but one 
of them, who had been expecting moose to come, sud- 
denly said: "There is a bull!" And sure enough, one 
was walking along the shore in the water, some thirty 
to forty rods away. It was their moose, as they had 
seen him first, but as they had quarreled on account of 
one of them having missed three fine shots at bears, they 
told us to go and kill him. Mr. Leonard handled the 
canoe very skillfully, and the moose was shot. 
That night we camped at Chesuncook Carry. About 6 
o'clock, while it was still daylight, I went down to the 
canoe for a pail of water, and seeing our calling horn 
lying on the breastworks where we had landed our stuff, 
I called, and at the first or second call was answered 
by two bulls, one on our side of the lake not over a mile 
off, the other across the lake nearly a mile away. We 
at once started out, but called in vain on our side, as he 
had winded our smoke and would not answer. The other 
answered regularly and began to travel toward the lower 
ena of the lake nearly two miles off. W^e kept nearly 
abreast of him, calling at intervals, and finally he came 
to us at the foot of the lake. 
Four days after this, as we were pitching our tent, just 
above Abol, on the west side of the Penobscot, I was 
sharpening a tent pin, when a bull gave such a roar as 
I never knew a moose could make. We both thought 
that he was charging right down upon us. After looking 
for him on our side of the river I set Leonard across 
while I pitched the tent. He soon came back, saying 
there were three — a bull, cow and calf — and that we 
would hunt them after dinner; so we did not build any 
fire, but ate a cold lunch, and putting on moccasins, 
crossed over. After following tracks some time we 
came out to the river and saw the old bull standing near 
the river, and slowly turning his huge horns. We started 
to creep up behind him, when we heard the cow call in 
some thick alders on the further side of a narrow strip 
of meadow. We at once started for her, but the bull 
got there first and was shot by Leonard when we were 
within loft. of him. 
Again, in 1858, as Mr. Leonard, W. H. Staples, P. An- 
toine Tomah and myself were going down the Alle- 
gash, a bull and cow started which were near the river. 
Leonard and Antoine followed them by the tracks in 
the moss till they separated, and then took the bull's 
track. After following a fourth of a mile one of them 
made a horn and called. At the very first call he came, 
making, as Hiram said, "a noise like pounding the joints 
of a frame together," He came directly to them, and was 
shot at short range. This bull had ver}!- large horns. 
This proves not only that they will come in the day- 
time, but that sometimes they will come in thick woods. 
Later the same fall, when we were near Blue Mountain 
Bend on the Tobique River, we saw a very large bull 
on the bank, evidently trying to find a cow which he 
must have heard, as he was answering. He allowed a 
canoe to be poled as near to him as was desired. This 
was done in perfectly open water, and one of the men 
had on a bright red shirt, which shows how stupid a 
moose sometimes is. We camped there that night, and 
in the evening heard a cow calling on the opposite bank. 
It is probable that he had heard her and was answering 
when we found him. 
The same fall I heard a calf calling for its mother. 
It made a low whining noise. I had seen its mother 
cross the river a few minutes before. 
Late in the fall of 1859, while fur hunting on Cancem- 
gemmock, my partner, who was looking a sable Hue on 
St. Johns waters, was driven behind his camp-fire by a 
bull, which came to the sound of his axe. He had a fire 
in front of a small, open-fronted camp of new cedar 
splits, and was cutting up his night's wood. The moose 
rushed up, and when he retreated into the camp kept 
walking back and forth, just the other side of the fire, 
for a long time, all the time grunting as they do when 
answering a cow. He seemed perfectly furious at be- 
ing deceived and not finding the" expected cow. My part- 
ner was a man of good courage, and knew all about 
moose, but having only a single-shot rifle pistol, thought 
it safest to let him alone. 
I could cite manj^ other instances of moose coming in 
the daytime, but the above are sufficient to show that 
it has long been a well-known fact that moose will come 
in the daytime. Mr. Leonard seldom called moOse for 
the sake of shooting when they came, but more to get 
a fresh track to follow. I often see long articles written 
by those who, by the help of a guide, have shot a moose 
— or their guide has shot one for them — or as is often 
fhti esse, have boueht a pair of horns — in which thev 
tell of tlieir feats as hunters. Thirty or forty years ago 
things were different. There was no guiding. When 
a man went hunting he was obliged to know how to han- 
dle a canoe, cook, pitch his tent, and kill what he got. 
In the fall of 1857, after Mr. Leonard had returned 
from_ a trip with me, when he had killed five moose in 
hunting less than two and a half days, he started back 
earl}^ in October. He was gone three weeks. He re- 
turned to Caribou Lake.- The time occupied in going 
and coming and Sundays left him but ten or eleven days, 
and in tliat time he Idlled eight moose by fair still- 
hunting on dry leaves, and skinned and stretched his own 
game, making a record of killing thirteen moose in less 
than fourteen days. Mr. Leonard used to tell me that 
in any kind of a fair chance he could average a moose a 
day by still-hunting, and what I have seen him do would 
prove it. It may be said that he could do it because 
moose were plenty and tame in those days. While moose 
were plentier, they were not so much plentier 
than now as some may think, and were certainly 
much wilder. Moose and deer both are much easier to 
approach now in the first of the season than they used to 
be. Then they were shot at at all seasons, and were kept 
wild; but now, seeing men and not being molested for 
months, they are tamer in the first part of the season. 
To show the difference then between hunters, I will 
sa}' that in 1857 we met two men who were called as good 
water hunters as there were. They had been out three 
weeks, water hunting and calling, and had not killed 
a single moose. To show what a man can do who 
understands his business, there is a man now living in 
Bangor — Mr. Samuel Whitcomb, an old partner of Leon- 
ard's — who in one day shot five old bulls with a single- 
shot muzzleloader by fair still-hunting on a light snow. 
The horns of one of these spread 6oin. P. Antoine To- 
mah in the fall of 1858 killed four old bulls and wounded 
a fifth in one day on light snow. Maine men used to 
know how to hunt, but thev did not do it with a pen. 
M. H. 
Manitoba Game Interests. 
Winnipeg, April 14. — Editor Forest and Stream: On 
April 8 a deputation of delegates appointel by the differ- 
ent field trials and gun clubs by appointment waited on 
the Provincial Government Law Amendments Commit- 
tee, for the purpose of impressing on the Government of 
the Province the necessity of their amending the present 
game act. 
The attached is a copy of the address delivered before 
the committee by Mr. G. B. Borradaile, the Manitoba 
Field Trials Club's delegate. As it fully describes the 
diffei-ent clauses of the bill now before the Government, 
you would confer a favor on the sportsmen of the Prov- 
ijnce by making mention or publishing as much of the 
address as the columns of your paper will permit, and 
greatly oblige 
William Chee, Hon. Sec.-Treas. M. F. T. Club. 
Mr. Borradaile's Address. 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: As one of tlie delegates 
of the Manitoba Field Trials Club, whose object is not 
only to improve the breed of sporting dogs, test their 
field qualities, etc., but to increase the interest of legiti- 
mate sport with dog and gun, I beg to point out why 
the clttb considers it necessary to appeal to you to amend 
the present game act. 
You are aware that under the present act it is permis- 
sible for a person to visit the breeding grounds of the 
prairie chicken, grouse, pheasants and partridges between 
Sept. 15 and Dec. i, and kill as many birds as he likes. 
Gentlemen, I feel sure you will agree with me that this 
law would be an ideal one if the sportsman hunting 
would not kill more than twenty birds in a day, and 
refrain from shooting birds on the ground, off wheat 
and other stacks, and trees. Unfortunately we have in 
this country a few persons who pose and call themselves 
sportsmen, who contend it is perfectlj' legitimate to kill 
large bags of this kind of game, not only at the beginning 
of the season (when birds are very tame), and necessi- 
tates their being either sent to cold storage or left on 
the ground to rot, but who again visit the feeding^ 
grounds before the season closes and make large bags 
by shooting these birds oft" grain stacks and trees. 
The present game act allows the kind of shooting I 
have mentioned. This being a fact, you will agree with 
me as to the necessity of its being amended. 
Personally I regret the necessity of appealing to youi 
to do so, as it will debar myself and others from hang- 
ing a few brace of grouse for winter supply. At the 
same time we all recognize the necessity of advocating 
the passing of legislation that will, if properly enforced, 
tend to better protect these grand birds that remain with 
us all the year round. 
My reason, Mr. Chairman, for saying "if properly en- 
forced," is, I believe there is a feeling among several of 
the members of the Legislature of the necessity of pass- 
ing an act, on the plea of their scarcity, prohibiting the 
shooting of prairie chickens, etc., for a year or so. We,^ 
as a club, contend that even if such an act was passed 
it would not accomplish the desired aim of its promoters 
unless proper game guardians are appointed to enforce 
the law. As far as the scarcity of prairie chickens is 
concerned, I beg to say to you, gentlemen, that never 
before in the course of a residence of over twenty-two- 
years in this Province have I ever known chickens to 
be as plentiful as thej^ were in several parts last season. 
It is certainly true that in certain localities they were 
scarce, which can be accounted for by floods in the 
springtime, also to prairie fires the previous autumn,, 
which burned up their food supply; but more particular- 
ly can this be traced to the severe winter of 1897, when 
snow covered the ground so deep that food could not be 
had on the prairie, necessitating the chickens, etc, going 
4 into the timbered country, where food could be found in 
abundance and shelter the best. Those birds that mi- 
grated to that kind of country hatched there, and to- 
day can be seen in thousands. 
Mr. Chairman, I do not think a more perfect bill could 
be framed for the better protection of all varieties of 
grouse, prairie chickens, pheasants and partridges than 
the one introduced at this session by Mr. Fowler, and 
which I understand rests with you, gentlemen, whether 
it becomes law or not. The following valid reasons 
show why we believe the bill to be perfect and at the 
same time why it commends itself to all sportsmen who 
have the true welfare of the game birds of this Province 
at heart. 
First — Because it shortens the open season by nearly 
a month, thereby prohibiting the self-designated sports- 
men from visiting the feeding grounds during the cold, 
frosty mornings and evenings just before the season 
closes, and shooting birds in their own peculiar wayj 
i. e., off stacks, trees, etc. 
Second — It prevents persons from having in their pos- 
session fifteen days after the closing date of shooting 
any of the game mentioned. This will be considered by 
those sportsmen who make moderate bags somewhat of 
a hardship; at the samei time they will agree with me* 
that if we are sincere in our protestations to protect the 
game we must be willing to make some sacrifice, espe- 
cially as we know that in doing so we are assisting you 
gentlemen to make a simple law that will, permit of being 
ing enforced. 
i have been asked, and refused, to advocate the pass- 
ing of an act permitting fifteen brace of any of the birds- 
mentioned to be in the possession of a person after the 
season has closed. My reason for refusing is, I ami 
anxious to see an act passed that will permit of being 
enforced with the least possible trouble. If it is per- 
missible to have fifteen brace of game some shooters 
would find it an incentive to have more than that num- 
ber of birds in their possession when the season closes, 
necessitating the individual having more than that num- 
ber calling upon his friends to help him to evade the 
law by taking birds under their protection. 
Mr. Chairman, if you require any further evidence of 
the necessity of prohibiting the game mentioned from 
being placed in cold storage, I beg to be allowed to refer 
you to Mr. F. Sprado, the manager of the Manitoba; Or 
to Mr. VV. J. O'Connor, the proprietor of the O'Connor 
Hotel, Winnipeg, who will be pleased to inform you 
that prairie chickens and grouse can be purchased dur- 
ing the closed season. 
Now, gentlemen, if you allow Mr. Fowler's bill to 
become law, you will make it an offense to have birds 
in possession fifteen days after the shooting season closes. 
Such a law will prevent prairie chickens, etc., from 
being hung up in cold storage or the back sheds of 
houses, in April, that should be out on the prairie breed- 
ing. 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I again beg to be al- 
lowed to point out to you why the club I represent is 
anxious you should amend the present act, which reads 
as follows: "Any kind of wild duck, sea duck, widgeon 
or teal, between Sept. i and May I," by aUowing Mr. 
Fowler's bill to become law, which makes it an offense 
to kill the birds I have mentioned between Jan, i and 
Sept. I following. 
First- — Because it is in unison with the aims of our 
brother sportsmen to the south of us, who met in the 
city of Chicago on Feb. 7 last, for the purpose of draft- 
ing uniform game laws to be presented to the different 
State Legislatures, unanimously drafted a bill prohibiting 
the killing of any kind of wild ducks between Jan. i and 
Sept. I following. 
Second — Experience has taught those sportsmen who 
shoot in the spring that if ducks are protected at that 
time they will nest in the Province. In many a late 
spring the birds arrive here mated and ready to begin 
housekeeping at the first quiet spot, but as the law now 
stands they are warned to "move on" by random guns 
at every slough and water hole they stoop toward. If the 
shooter cannot get enough shooting in the fall, let him 
take the advice of that prince of sportsmen, the editor 
of Field and Stream, and follow the ducks south; but 
"make it impossible for him who has abundant leisure 
to minimize the sport to him who has but a few days 
in the year that he can give to a shooting trip. Given 
immunity from danger in the spring, wildfowl would 
nest about every piece of water in the Northwestern 
States, and raise an enormous food supply and afford 
good sport till freezing time." 
Gentlemen, that is the opinion of one of the recognized 
authorities on all matters appertaining to field sports. 
Third — It does away with the chance of prairie chick- 
ens and grouse, etc., being shot by the self-designated 
sportsman. 
Under the bill Mr. Fowler has introduced it is permis- 
sible to have all kinds of ducks and geese killed during 
the open season in possession during the winter months. 
Surel3\ Mr. Chairman, this concession should satisfy 
any fair-minded sportsman. 
With reference to the appointment of a paid game 
guardian I am led to believe that on the plea of your 
Legislature having no funds with which to pay a guard- 
ian it is out of the question to expect the Government of 
this Province to appoint one. 
Mr. Chairman, I do not hesitate to assure you that 
if the Government appoint a thoroughly competent game 
guardian, whose whole time will be devoted to looking 
after the game, and the enforcement of that act, the 
revenue derived from fines, etc., will more than pay his 
salary. While on the subject of that appointment of a 
game guardian, let me inform you, Mr. Chairman and 
Gentlemen, the importance of the guardian receiving 
your instructions to affiliate with every club and sports- 
man in the Province, who will, I feel sure, be only too 
anxious to render him every assistance in bringing vio- 
lators of the law to justice. 
For further evidence of the necessity of the appoint- 
ment of a guardian, let me call your attention to a 
I'ecognized fact, i. e., that no country in America is 
known better, or is more widely advertised on account 
of its game, than the Province of Manitoba. The Gov- 
ernments and railways make particular mention of the 
different kinds of game that can be shot within its boun- 
daries. Under the circumstances, it is not only reason- 
able for the sportsmen of the Province to expect both 
these bodies to contribute toward protecting the game, 
the former by paying a guardian his salary, eac, and the 
latter hy giving him free transportation? 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, let me conclude by 
asking your serious consideration of the points that have 
been brought to 3'^our notice in my endeavors to bring 
l)efore you data that it is earnestly hoped will be of as- 
