Mat it, 1901.] 
FOREST AIMaj stream. 
367 
He inforried me that it was rather late in the season for 
good caribou heads, as caribou shed their horns about 
the first of November, and tlie large ones shed theirs 
first. He was sure that we could still find a good head, 
but it was best to lose no time in getting to the hunting 
ground. So the next morning, after starting Mr. Foran 
ofT for home with instructions to return for me in two 
weeks, we took a trail to the "burned woods" or "bar- 
rens" that extend for miles along the north branch of 
the Little Sou' west Miramichi, where Wambolt has 
another one of his camps exactly like the one at Guagus 
Lake, but snip Her. 
At this lime of year the caribou leave the woods and 
come out on these barren lands in herds, to feed upon 
the gray moss, which covers the ground until the snow 
gets so deep that they can no longer dig it out. 
Our fears with reference to the caribou lioms were 
fully realized, for we saw thirty-three caribou m the next 
five' days, a large number of which were fine .bulls with 
their horns off. It was the afternoon of the fifth day 
before I saw a head that I cared to shoot. 
During that week the weather had become very cold 
and about a foot of snow had fallen. 
Sunda\^, Ivovember i8th, found us again at Guagns' 
Lake camp with a fine caribou head. We were now 
ready to try the moose and I confess, I felt a little un- 
easy about the chances of securing a good one in a week. 
But Wambolt was as confident as ever. His only answer 
to my anxious questions was: "There are plenty of 
moose," and so it proved. 
In New Brunswick at this time of year it snows nearly 
every nipht, and frequently during the day, too. It was 
our fortune to meet with just such conditions, so that 
every morning the tracks made the day before would 
be buried in the new fallen snow. 
On Wednesday the thermometer went up to 34 de- 
grees, and it rained gently all day. That morning we 
took a liail that went north from the Guagus Lake 
toward the Bald Mountain. We had gone about five 
miles when we came on the tracks of a tremendous 
moose that had crossed the trail the night before, going 
in a norrheastt-rly direction. We followed him at once^ 
At first I expected to see him ahead of me at any mo- 
ment, and kept a sharp lookout. This soon became tire^^ 
some ard I amused myself measuring the length of his 
giant strides by pacing along in his footprints. I found 
that he took a step from 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet in 
length. From time to time I could see the branches 
broken bv his horns where he had gone between two 
trees, and 1 tried to estimate from this hovtf wide the 
spread would be. 
Neither c f us spoke a word till noon, when we stopped 
tor lundi. The guide then informed me that we were 
probably nowhere near the moose. He was evidently 
an old bull looking for a place to yard for the winter. 
He had kept a straight northeast course and had not 
once stopped to feed. As long as he kept walking he 
was increasing his lead on us, for his great strides would 
carry him through the brush and fallen tree tops much 
faster than we could follow. My spirits fell, for I had 
pictured myself shooting this particular moose, and I 
knew if we gave him up the chance of my finding as 
large a one would be very slim. 
After lunch v;e took up the track again and soon came 
to a place where five oiher moose had joined him or 
followed his track. About three miles further on the five 
separated from the big bull and took a more northerly 
course, 
Wambolt was in favor cf following the five, for he 
reasoned that five moose, two of which were evidently 
calves, would stop to feed or yard sooner than one trav- 
eUng alone. I argued that, for all we knew the old bull 
might have already come a long distajice and was not at 
or near his destination. 
Our discussion took a practical turn by the guide call- 
ing my attention to the fact that we had eaten up all 
our provisions, and if we would reach camp before dark 
we must start back at once. We accordingly took the 
compass and set out in a westerly direction for the trail 
we had left in the morning, leaving undecided the ques- 
tion as to which tracks we should follow. After about 
an hour's rapid walking we struck the trail at a point 
several miles north of the place where we had taken the 
track of the big moose, and by making all possible haste 
reached camp before dark. 
We decided that on the following morning we_ would 
take three days' provisions on our backs and again take 
up the track of our moose unless we should find fresh 
tracks before we reached his. 
Before daylight we were up and ready to start. The 
temperature had dropped to 20 degrees in the night. 
The wind was blowing a gale and occasionally a blind- 
ing snow squall would come driving through the woods. 
The old snow, soaked with the rain of the day before, 
was frozen hard, making it impossible to walk quietly. 
Our only consolation was that the roar of the wind 
through the trees drowned all other sounds, save now 
and then the crash of an uprooted tree. 
We had not gone up the trail more than two miles 
when we came upon the tracks of three moose that had 
crossed after we had passed the afternoon before. They 
were going southwest, directly toward the head of Gua- 
gus Lake. As the chances of finding these were so much 
better, and they w^ere so much nearer our camp, we gave 
up the old bull and took these fresh tracks. They took 
us down into a swamp, through some of the worst thick- 
ets and bog holes I have ever seen. After an hour or 
more of this, we came to the tracks of a very large 
moose going in a northeasterly direction and apparently 
headed for higher ground, where the traveling would be 
better. 
By this time considerable snow had fallen and the 
tracks were all partly filled. The guide suggested that 
we leave the three and follow the big one, whose track 
appeared to be as fresh as the others, although the old 
snow had frozen since both were made, rendering it 
impossible to tell. I ventured the suggestion that this 
might be the track of the big bull we were follow'ng the 
previous day. before he had reached the place where we 
had started on his track. Wambolt did not think so, al- 
though he admitted the nnssibility of such a thing. 
This moose went up hill and down, never varying the 
length of his step, no matter how steep the a«cent. He 
W0U14 (ollow ap old lumber rond if it ran uorlhe^st, 
the moment it changed its direction lie would leave it. 
He would go through a (alien tree top where he could 
easily have walked around it, never seeming to notice 
the obstiuction. 
We had followed him for some time when my guide, 
who was always ahead, suddenly stopped and gave vent 
to some adjectives which I will omit from these pages. 
Stepping up quickly I saw our footprints of the day 
before, at the exact spot where we had first taken up the 
trail of the big moose. With prophetic wisdom my 
guide said: "I thought it was the same one." I 
knew he had thought nothing of the kind, and could not 
restrain a hearty laugh. 
As we had already lost several hours on this back 
track, we started at a brisk walk for the spot where we 
had left it and the tracks of the five other moose the 
previous afternoon. 
When we reached the place, Wambolt was inclined to 
take up the tracks of the five, but this time I insited on 
following the big one,' since we had already tracked 
him so far. And we were off again with those big prints 
constantly stretching away further and further ahead of 
us th'ough the woods. 
At noon v/e. stopped for lunch, but were soon at it 
again. Shortly after this we came to a large stream 
which my guide informed me was the north branch 
of the Big Savogel. He felled a tree across it for a 
bridge, and we got over safely. 
We continued for some time in silence. I was think- 
ing of a story I had read once, of a man who had walked 
down a moose in five days, and was wondering if he 
would have ever lived to write that article if he had 
been on the track of this particular moose, when my 
guide stopped and motioned me to come forward. "He's 
right here!" he whispered. I looked around but could 
see nothing to indicate it. The tracks were still two 
da3's old, but I noticed that the moose had turned off 
to the right and was traveling southeast. "He's stopped 
to feed, and he's in this yard s mewhere. Don't break 
no sticks," my guide whispered again as he cautiously 
stepped back from the tracks and looked up at the clouds 
to get the exact direction of the wind, which was still 
blowing a gale from the northwest. 
The moose had done exactly as Wambolt had phophe- 
sied, lie had evidently been a long distance from this 
plfice when he had made up his mind to yard, and for 
some reason', probably because he had spent the winter 
here the year before, started in a direct line for his old 
feeding ground. 
In the early winter, as the snow begins to get deep, 
the moose select some place where feed is abundant, usu- 
ally the top of a ridge where there is a thick growth of 
young hardwood trees, and stay in this locality till 
spring. This is called yarding. Before the snow gets 
too deep to travel, the moose will wander over the entire 
length of the ridge, and feed on the bark and twigs of 
the hardwood trees. At this time the yard may extend 
for two or three miles in length, or as far as the growth 
of hardwood is plentiful. As the snow gets deeper they 
work closer together, and late in the winter it is not 
uncommon to find five or six moose standing together 
with the snOw nearly to the top of their backs, almost 
unable to move. 
The guide shook his head dubiously as he saw that 
the moose had gone directly down wind. This adverse 
circumstance only spurred him to greater efforts. We 
cautiously retraced our steps and began to move in a 
circle toward the southeast, gradually working around 
till we were again walking toward the northwest. W'e 
soon came to the big track again, still going southeast, 
and quickly retreated and made another loop, coming 
up in the same manner ,as before, until we could see the 
big track. This maneuver was repeated several times. 
We were constantly on the a,lert scanning the woods 
m every direction as' far as we could see through the 
trees. We found the tracks of several other moose, 
and could see by the young twigs freshly broken from the 
bushes, and small trees entirely stripped of their bark, 
that they had been feeding recently and were not far 
off. 
A-t last, coming up on one of our circles, we saw the 
spot where the old fellow had spent the night. After 
that the signs were very fresh and the work extremely 
interesting.. 
We continued our circles for perhaps another half 
hour, and v^-ere just working up wind nearly to the 
place where we would expect to come upon the track, 
when I saw through the trees, about sixty-five yards 
ahead, a huge black object which quickly took the shape 
of a great moose. He was lying down and looking 
straight at me. At the same instant Wambolt said in 
a low voice, "There's your moose!" I dropped on one 
knee in order to get a better shot under the intervening 
limbs. As I did so the moose arose to his feet, and 
in doing so placed his fore shoulder exactly behind a 
large tree. I aimed far enough back to miss the tree, 
and fired at his ribs. He made a tremendous jump and 
started to run. Just then Wambolt grunted, imitating 
the grunt of a moose. At this he stopped for a second 
and again looked at us. 
After the first shot I had worked the lever of my 
rifle to throw a second cartridge from the magazine into 
the chamber, but in the excitement I had not thrown the 
lever far enough forward to eject the exploded shell, 
and in closing the action had pushed this shell back in 
the gun. At the click of the hammer on the empty shell 
the moose started again. By this accident I lost a shot 
that would have saved us much worry and hard work. 
As he disappeared I fired two more shots through the 
trees without any idea of stopping him. In a few seconds 
the woods was as quiet. as before. 
W'e went up to the place where he had started and 
were gratified to find considerable blood on. the snow. 
"You have hit him hard, and we'll get him, but may be 
not till to-morrow or ne.xt day," Wambolt said assur- 
ingly. "There are only two things that will stop us from 
getting that moose. One is, if he knows we are follow- 
ing him he will take to the water, and the other is, it 
may snow and fill up his tracks." 
It is alwai-s wise to give wounded game plenty of time 
to lie down if it will, so we sat down on a log and Wam- 
bolt lit his pipe. 
In about tw-enty minutes we took up his track once 
more. After, be had run a short distance he had stt- 
\\^^ down to a steady walk. I noticed tlwt he was 
taking much shorter steps than before being hit. He 
was bleeding freely and harl shopped once, where the 
blood had Howed in sufficient quantity to melt a large 
hole through the snow. 
We kept on, and at the end of the first mile the blood 
had diminished so there was seldom a drop. My hopes 
of getting him had gone down correspondingly. Wam- 
bolt was still confident. 
Another mile had passed with no sign of blood in the 
tracks. We were advancing cautiously and keeping a 
good lookout ahead. Suddenly I saw that black object- 
through the trees. In a moment I caught a glimpse of 
the horns, and knew it was mv moose. At the same time 
Wambolt whispered, "That's him!" I fired. The moose 
rolled over on his side and lay perfectly still. 
He had been lying down, and was so near dead that I 
doubt if he had seen us. My first shot had passed through 
the lungs about six inches back of the shoulder blade. 
He was a very large moose. His hoofs were much 
worn, showing great age. I measured from the top of 
his fore shoulder to the bottom of his fore foot, to get 
as nearly as possible his exact height at the fore shoul- 
der. I found it just eighty inches. His horns were 
heavy, but of peculiar shape. The blades were narrow, 
extending out from the side of the head with a spread o£ 
fifty-one inches, then turning they went straight up 
twenty-eight inches. 
Our troubles had only just commenced, for we still 
had to get his head and horns out of the woods. This 
was the'^most difficult task of all. 
The next night, however, found us safe in camp 
with our trophy. On the way back we came upon a 
cow and a calf moose. They were very tame and stood 
and looked at us as we went by. 
My last dav in camp was spent resting and preparing 
the moose head for the taxidermist. Mr. Foran reached 
our camp that night, and the next morning we were off 
for Newcastle. 
It was with true feel'ngs of regret that I said good- 
by to Wambolt. He had proved himself a hunter 
worthy of the name. At my request he did not carry 
a gun during the entire trip. He was anxious that I 
should secure good specimens of both moose and cari- 
bou, and was constantly rau'ioning me against shooting 
at one with a pooi set of horns. 
For the benefit of anv of my fellow sportsmen who 
contemplate taking a huntins- trip in this region. I might 
add that Wambolt's postnffice address is Littleton, 
Northumberland county. N. B. He will be glad to 
correspond with any one olanning a trip to his terri- 
°I^found every one with whom T had dealings kind and 
obliging and above all interested in serur-ng the ©atron- 
age "of American sportsmen. J. Bradley Scott. 
Game Protective Societies Invited. 
Toronto, Ont., May 2. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Will you kindly, through the medium of Forest and 
Stream. reaue=t the secretaries of the game protective as- 
sociations of the following State« to pond their names and 
addresses to me?: States of New York, Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Michigan. Indiana, etc. 
I want the=e addresses to enable me to correspond with 
the executive officers of their respective assorations, with 
the intention of taking concerted action for the better 
protection of wood duck and woodcock, two grand species 
of game birds, that unless concerted action is taken will 
in a few years be exterminated. 
By so doing you will confer an esteemed favor on 
yours truly, ^ E. Tjnslpv, 
Chief Game Warden of Ontario, Parliament Building, 
Toronto. 
Bay Bkds, 
The Forest anu Stream has had good rennrts of bay 
bird shootine at the following points. Intending visitors 
would do well to communicate m advance with the parties 
named re^necting the r>resent sunplv and prospects: 
L. M. Tavlor, Jr.— Cherrystone, Va. 
Tos. H. Si-even= — Wachprrague, Accomac county, Va. 
E, B. Cobb— Cherreton.^ Va. 
L, Lucius Cohh — Cherriton. Va. 
L. R. White— Carolla. N. C. ^' 
Harvev's Cedars. N. T. 
Holletier's Inner Beach Hotel— Long Beach, 11. I. 
Euff^ne .A.. Tackson — East Ouogue, L. I. 
S. W. Everett— IVTanteo. N, C. 
Crunnot Bros. — Cherriton, Va. 
Long: Island Game PfotectofS* 
WHtTEHALL. N. Y.. Anril ?,o.—P.dUor Forest and 
Stream: Tn reading over your issne of April 27. an art'cle 
entitled "Where i= the Long Island Came Protector?" at- 
tracted mv attention. If its author reallv desires to see 
the law enforced whv doesn't he communicate with Chief 
Protector Pond pnd let h'm 1-now the facts? Besides, if 
he had any sand he would collect evidence against these 
violators or call the nearest game nrotector's attention to 
these violations and personally help him to uphold the law. 
Wm. KocHj Jr. 
Woodcock Cover Burned. 
BAri'TT.t.E. N. J.. May 2 — The fowl have left the bay. 
There ha" been very few killed this spring. 
A fire has just gone through here which has burned at 
least fifty snuare mites of our best woodcock and grouse 
cover, and has killed large numbers of both birds, also a 
good many rabbits, etc., and has burned the woodcock 
nests. Herb. 
Forest and Stream is an excellent paper; it has sup- 
ported many good causes, especially in relation to the 
protection of game, and it has always been credited with 
an intelligent svmnathy with snorts and sportsmen of 
the best sort. * * * it needs and deserves the help 
of the rest of us in behalf of its camnaign for a law to 
prevent the sale of dead game. — New York Times, April 
IS- 
