T. II, 1902.1 
FOREST AND ^ STREAM, 
287 
id red yards or so. The cows evidently did not approve 
his actions, as they kept moving around him, and then 
vay a little, trying to coax him with them. They would 
iep near enough to him to make it Very risky shooting 
him, for fear of wounding them. We had to wait 
itiently for a suitable chance. The cows at last were at 
safe distance, when J. P. suggested shooting, for fear 
ey would again intervene. Doc, being familiar with 
stance on the prairie, gave it as his opinion that the 
ill was too far away to do serious injury to him with 
e guns they had — the Mauser being left at camp. The 
dde also advised waiting, and succeeded in coaxing the 
ill still closer. At last wc could wait no longer, and 
cided to blaze away* Five shots were quickly fired, and 
e last .seemed to take effect, for the moose made of? 
pidly. Against the advice of our guide, we excitedly 
llowed him. We found blood on his trail, but the 
ase led us into a cedar swamp so impassable that we 
ve up in disgust. We found we had been between 500 
d 525 paces from the moose when we were firing at hini. 
iturning to camp, we rested till evening, when we 
;nt to the other barren. A call by our guide was almost 
imediately answered. Strange to say, another seenled 
be calling between us and the answer, on the opposite 
le of the barren. It was explained by our guide telling 
it was a cow. Our guide had the art of calling down 
fine that we could Hot detect any difference oetween 
5 call and the cow's. Eventually the bull came, and as 
met the cow first, stayed with her till a short call 
3to our guide brought him to the edge of the bushes, his 
ad and horns only being discernible. Apparently he 
d a grand set of antlers. A monstrous cow trotted out 
the barren, frisked around a while, and returned to 
z bushes. She tried her best to prevail on him to re- 
rn to her. but he was immovable apparently. For fear 
should go before giving Us a better view of him, we 
cided to tfy a, shot, eveil thoiigh the position wfls ail 
favorable one, 
.After our morning's experleflce with the lighter guns, 
; decided the Mauser should be always in the party, 
e decided to try a shot with it. A carefully ainled 
Dt by J, P. at what he thought was the neck, or rather 
where he thought the neck should be joined to the 
id, was tried, with the effect of causing him to boutld 
into the bushes, making an awful racket with his 
ms as he dashed away through the trees. 
Going to where he had been standing, we found blood, 
d all along his trail for upward of half a mile, then 
more was to be seen. While J. P. and McDonald 
;re hunting for the moose, after the trail of blood 
ded, they came tipon two bull caribou in conflict, while 
female was an interested spectator, apparently. Not 
owing when they Would come Upon the Wounded 
jose, they left the cariboU to settle their dispute as 
St they could withtiut h^liJ. 
^^1? ilight was rapidly coming on, we returned to the 
lUng grounds, where our guide gave three good calls, 
d without waiting to see with what result, we continued 
to camf). At the calling ground next morning the 
or of moose was indisputahle, and the guide gave 
short call-. Almust.oH tiie iilstaiit, oUt tfotted it itmg- 
leetlt bull hioose, side to us, and when about a hundred 
rds from the trees, turned his head toward us and 
jpped. He made one of the prettiest sights imaginable. 
)c reached for the Mauser, aimed and fired. Down 
opped the moose, and when we reached him he was 
ad, We measured the spread and found it fifty -two 
■hes, with Webs eleven by tweiity-seven and a half, and 
:ve!i atid a haij by thirty-oite and a half, having twen- 
-one points, it was very bright and beautifully veined, 
inning and dressing the head and storing the meat 
cupied considerable of the forenoon. The afternoon 
Ls taken tip in moving some necessaries from our per- 
inent camp to a temporary one of blankets at the edge 
the barren to lessen the amount of travel we were 
ll5g. Examining the head attentively, we found be- 
een the nose and eye a recent bullet wound, and as the 
pearance of the moose seen the night before was very 
nilar to this one, and as the wound in the face was 
the side toward us when standing in the bushes, we 
Lild arrive at no other conclusion tlian that the moose 
is one and the same, and that our shot the night before, 
itead of hitting the neck, hit in the face, just below the 
It is a supposed impossible feat to call back a moose 
It has been wovmded, and we are positive it was the 
ne moose — so facts speak for themselves. 
Tuesday night we called again, and as it was blowing 
fy hard, we were some time before we could detect an 
swering soimd. It was dark before he came — so late, in 
;t, that we had gone to bed — but we knew he was near 
■ good reasons. One was the heavy odor of moose, an- 
ler was the occasional cracking of a twig, as an animal 
)ving cautiously trod on it, and also his putting up five 
rtridge on his way to us. He remained near us for a 
aple of hours — then we slept. We were awakened by 
nething snufBng around the head and hide, which was 
mgside our tent, and after a while it poked its nose 
ainst our blankets. Raising the blanket a little, the 
t breath of a bear came in on J. P.'s face. Needless 
say he dropped the blanket quickly again. After quick- 
debating whether to shoot the bear and let the moose 
, or let he bear go and trust to luck to get the moose 
the morning, we decided on the latter, and tried to 
npose ourselves to sleep again. The bear quickly and 
iselessly skedaddled as soon as he got a whiff of us. 
couple of hours later we were again rudely awakened 
a lucifee, which made night hideous for a while with 
! peculiar cries. At last dawn began to creep in, and 
; noticed less odor of moose. On investigating, we 
ind he was gone, though he had been within ten paces 
our tent, as his marks on the earth plainly showed 
lere he had stood. As J. P. wanted the moose more 
m he did the bear, we refrained from_ bothering the 
ar, trusting the moose would be within hail in the 
jrning, but he was not. A couple of calls brought up a 
uple of spike horns, but we did not want them. We 
if ted operations to another barren, on which were two, 
spike horn and a cow. We did not molest them. _ In 
; evening we brought a bull from two cows, but light 
led before we were able to get him within sure range. 
Thursday our teamster was to come in for any game 
> may have shot, so we lost the forenoon waiting for 
Ti. He did not come, so we went further afield and 
w a couple of bvdls and three cows on various parts 
tlie barrens. There was only one fair head, and as 
we had seen so many moose, we felt sure we would be 
able to get as good a one as Doc's, so. we did not molest 
these. 
Friday Doc was used up with a cold, and decided to 
stay at camp and wait for the team, which would surely 
come that day. He intended also to keep an eye out for 
the bear that Used to cross the trail near the camp nearly 
every day. He did not see it, however. McDonald went 
to a barren some few miles away, to see what were the 
prospects in that direction. When he had gone, J. P. 
concluded to visit a barren four miles away, where he had 
shot at a moose on that day the year before. On his way 
back, within fifty yards of where he stood the year pre- 
vious when he shot at the moose, J. P. heard the un- 
mistakable sound of horns against trees. He dropped on 
his hands and knees and crawled back and forth for an 
hour at least, trying all the while to get a glimpse of the 
owner of the horns. At last out walked a cow, and J. P. 
kept immovable. After a time the bushes parted and out 
walked a monster. J. P. raised his rifle, and almost at 
the same instant noticed it was a cow. It was a great dis- 
appointment, but patiently he waited. Presently an ani- 
mal was heard to drop to the earth. Crawling still nearer 
the atiimal, lifting every intervening twig and dead 
branch out of the way, J. P. made his way to within 
fifty yards of the noise, and at last was rewarded by a 
sight of one ear and a pair of horns^ — branches effectually 
obscuring the rest of the animal, 
J. P. fired for below the ear and up jumped a huge 
moose. Again he fired and the moose fell. J. P. thought 
it was killed and stood up. The moose jumped up also 
and charged. J. P. fired and again the moose fell. J. P. 
approached, when again the moose arose, apparently full 
of go yet. Again a shot and the moose was stretched 
out. J." P. approached to within ten feet, when the moose 
tried to reach his feet, J. P. fired his fifth shot, which 
terminated the strife. This fusilade at short distance con- 
vinced J. P. that the .30-30 is not heavy enough, nor can 
it be compared to the Mauser or guns of that stamp. J. 
P. returned for help. We measured the spread, and 
found it to be fifty-six inehes, having nineteen points, and 
while the horns were ttot as even as Doc's, still the head 
was a better proportioned one, and grander looking. He 
was well pleased. The cows remained around all this 
time, until we had the meat nearly dressed. They did not 
seem to realize tile fate of their mate. 
The team having arrived in the meantime, we loaded 
our trophies that night, and next day returned to Black- 
ville. This year we go in again D, V. Our guide proved 
to be an expert at all kinds of work. On several occa- 
sions we heard the cows call ; his was a perfect imitation. 
We could detect no particle of difference. Then again, he 
brought back a wounded moose, an almost unheard of 
piece of fine work ; and time and time again did he coax 
the bull;? ftom the cows. A man who can do all these is 
among the leaders in that branch of sport. As a guide, he 
knows every portion of the ground thereabouts, and not 
only that, but he is thoroughly conversant with the habits_ 
of the large game wandering over that vast extent of 
countrv. Our camp was only ten miles from Blackville 
Station, though we had to drive fifteen to get there, but 
five of that is^a splendid road. We could have had all the 
deer and caribou we would be allowed to take, but we 
went in for moose, and we got them. Two such heads in 
eight days with the one guide is fairly good work. Our 
advice to hunters from the States is, do not be coaxed to 
go fifty or sixty miles from a railway to find game. It is 
unnece'ssary. Nor is it necessary to freight supplies all 
ever creation. A day's drive lands the party and supplies 
in the furthest camp in the Parish of Blackville. and 
moose, caribou, deer, and bear can be obtained in all 
parts of the parish — even the outskirts of the villages not 
being free from their trespassing. 
Tevanus. 
Blackville, N. B. 
Across New Brunswick on Snow- 
shoes* — IV* 
A Side Trip for Moose. 
Adam Moore confessed to me that when he was a boy 
it was one of his ambitions to some day live in a house 
with long icicles hanging from the eaves, the appearance 
of a neighboring house thus decorated appealing very 
much to his youthful fancy. Certainly Adam might have 
felt himself satisfied in this regard when he looked upon 
the morning of the day which we had set for one more 
trial for our bull moose. The weather had played us 
another scurvy trick. Rain had fallen in the night, the 
thermometer being just low enough to allow a freeze to- 
ward morning. The snow began to soften at the firsf ap- 
pearance of the sun, and we needed no assurance that the 
snowshoeing was going to be awful. None the less, with 
v.diat spirit we might, we packed our blankets and some 
needed supplies for our trip up into the hills to the Klon- 
dike camp. Adam and I started out ahead, it being un- 
derstood that we would visit Jack's moose yard, and that 
Jack and Charlie would meet us at the Klondike camp 
later in the day. We climbed for two and a half miles 
along a continually rising trail, working up all the time 
hito the heavy hill country. Then we came to a half-mile 
of a tremendously steep descent, down which we at 
times had to slide, being unable to keep our feet on the 
snowshoes. This brought us to the Silver Brook, a pretty 
little stream which heads back into one of the roughest 
countries of New Brunswick, in as good a winter range 
for moose as the entire Province can provide. 
The Silver Brook got its name from certain prospecting 
operations which were once upon a time carried on there- 
abouts. There is a rumor that gold was once found in 
this stream and indications of silver in the surrounding 
hills, but history does not say that mining was ever car- 
ried on there in anything but a tentative fashion. 
la the Yard. 
Coming presently to the forks of the stream, we took 
Jack's fading snowshoe trail for a mile up the right-hand 
fork, and we found that his report of the moose yard was 
indeed correct. We paused to eat our lunch before we 
went into the yard, and as we stood in the snow we saw 
the broad horn marks of a bull moose on a nearby tree. 
Further in we saw the brush beaten down, with trees bent 
o\^T^ tops nipped oflf, and bark stripped off freshly from 
the roundwood and the spruce trees. We knew that now 
we had come into a genuine moose yard. The tracks 
were fresh, and among them the broad and unmistakable 
sign of at least one big bull. Then Adam gave me an 
example of good moose hunting — as good, I imagine, as 
any one in the world could have given under the cir- 
cumstances. The soft weather had turned off into a 
regular Highland fog, and the air was full of mist, which 
left our clothing wet as though it had been raining. The 
wind whipped hither and yon around the hill tops,- andi 
it was a continual puzzle which direction it would next 
take. We worked out tO' the edge of the yard as best we 
might, trying to keep away from the place where the 
moose would he most apt to be feeding, until we had been 
able to get an estimate of the distance the game might be 
ahead. The going was as bad as one often sees on snow- 
shoes. The wet and heavy snow clogged up continually, 
and as we passed through the little fir thickets now and 
again we would break through and slide waist deep under 
the trees in the heavy snow. It was a mile up the ridge 
before we found a sign so fresh that we took on even a 
greater caution. At last we found very fresh sign, but 
not so fresh that we believed the game could be less than 
tw'enty minutes ahead of us. In reality, we were deceived 
to some extent by the thawing of the snow, which made 
all the sign look older than it was. We thought we might 
be perhaps half a mile back of our moose, whereas in 
reality we were not 100 yards. 
"Jumped." 
"This looks fresher," said Adam to me in a whisper, 
and we pushed on, I with my rifle at a ready, we being 
obliged at this place to cross a little thicket of snow- 
covered firs. We pushed on and saw that the thicket 
sheltered an open space 100 yards or more across. There 
lay the story before its, written once more upon the tell- 
tale snow. Once more Adam's hand dropped to his side 
and despair and discouragement sat upon_ his face. In 
silence he pointed to the sign. Jumped again! 
It Avas all as plain as day. Just beyond the little thicket 
not more than sixty yards from where we saw the freshest 
sign, a miserable, beastly little moose calf, probably a 
yearling, had been lying. It heard or smelt us as we 
came through the thicket, went off on a run,- and with it 
carried out the rest of the moose — three cows and the big 
bull — which we had coveted. All the moose had gone for 
a couple of hundred yards or more, and then had fled 
back directly toward us, as we came up the trail. This 
v/as the only thicket of the sort we had struck for a 
quarter of a mile. Once more the native cunning of these 
wild creatures had conquered us. 
This time we had been near indeed to our bull, for had 
that calf not been lying there, and had we got through 
the thicket undiscovered, we should have had him at our 
mercy. We saw where he had been standing in the open, 
at the time the little moose jumped the herd. He was 
in a veritable death trap for himself. Two big spruces 
stood close together, and the moose had been feeding 
with his head behind one of them, stripping the bark of 
the other as high as he could reach. When feeding, a 
moose cannot hear very plainly. There was nothing to 
cover his flank, and there was nothing to conceal him 
from view for the first sixty or seventy yards of his flight. 
There he had been, and certainly he was a beauty. I 
stood on my snowshoes over his tracks, which sank deep 
into the snow, and I reached up on the tree trunk as high 
as I could. I could not reach within a foot and a half of 
the upper edge of the tale he had left on he bark. That is 
to say, I could not reach within that distance of his last 
tooth marks upon the bark, not counting the stripping of 
the bark above that place. He was certainly feeding more 
than ten feet above the level at which he stood. I could 
not have believed that any animal in those woods reached 
such dimensions. Adam and I wondered and wondered 
again, and more than once we deplored our sad misfor- 
tune. Certainly fate seemed against us, for even Adam 
was fain to admit that we would never have a better 
chance again, or at a better moose. "He was a whale," 
said Adam, "and no mistake about that. Well, for my 
part, I don't feel like hunting any more. Let's go back to 
camp." ^ li 
By the Compass. 
Tired, wet and sad, we turned back down the hill. 
We were now nearly at the summit of this ridge, but 
just where we were not even Adam himself could tell in 
that shifting, blinding fog. Of course we could take our 
back track and get to Bathurst camp, but we wanted to 
go to the Klondike side camp instead. We knew the 
direction of the bald Sagamok Mountain, which is the 
landmark for all that region. We thought that perhaps 
ahead of us lay the rough waters of the Serpentine chains. 
We had outclimbed the ultimate thread of our fork of 
the Silver Brook, and any way we looked we saw hills, 
and nothing but hills, of the most formidable description. 
"WeU," said Adam, "let's stop here, and we'll figure 
this thing out. I think a compass will be mighty handy 
right here. We want to go about east from here, in 
order to strike the other fork of the Silver Brook. If 
we hit that below the Klondike camp, all we'll have to do 
is to go tip the stream. If we hit it above the camp, then 
we'll strike Jack's trail where he went out yesterday, or 
my own trail where I killed my moose. It's a heap easier 
than it would be to go down this fork, and then come up 
again." Saying which, he plunged down the steep slope 
in the direction he had named. I could not help admiring 
the tremendous physical vigor of the man. He reminded 
me of a big bull moose. 
For myself, I was wearing ray flat-bowed shoes that 
day, and I must say they were giving me an awful gruel- 
ling. The straps got wet and stretched, and the snow 
piled up icily, and the walking down hill was at this stage 
of the game hardly less than terrible. This is where I 
laid the foundation for a general loosening of a whole 
row of toenails. I told Adam about it, but he said not to 
mind it, for a fellow who was particular about his toenails 
had no business in that part of the country. There is 
something convincing in that sort of reply, which seems 
to leave nothing more to be said. 
At last in some way we struck a stream. I thought it 
might be Serpentine water, running away from the Silver 
Brook, but Adam knew better. "This, stream is running 
all right," said he, "and all you will hkve to 4o is to foi- 
