•January, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
13 
of this, over four hundred yards away, 
we saw two moose, which we observed, 
upon getting closer, were a cow and 
calf, and as the law does not allow the 
killing of either, we let them go. 
Retracing our steps we again came 
to the lake and went up two miles. 
Soon we discovered the fresh tracks 
of a deer, and, coming out in a small 
clearing, saw three of them bound 
away into the heavy timber. 
Bill, the oldest of our party, was the 
only one who could get a clear shot. 
He declared he had hit his quarry, and 
sure enough, when we got to the timber, 
the blood could be seen. 
Thanks to the light fall of snow on 
the ground, we could follow the trail, 
which led us straight ahead for a while. 
The three deer were then keeping to- 
gether, but after a little while the 
wounded deer left his companions and 
made off to the right. Two of us fol- 
lowed him and the other boys kept on 
after the others. 
We were very anxious to get another 
shot at the wounded animal, as nothing 
is worse in my opinion than leaving a 
wounded deer to wander around in the 
woods, later to die a slow death of 
his wounds or to fall a prey to the 
wolves which infest our Northern Can- 
ada. We had followed the wounded 
animal for about another half hour, 
when I noticed that we were back on 
our old trail again, and knew that the 
deer was circling around — a great habit 
with deer when hunted. Advising 
Archie to keep right along on the trail, 
I posted myself behind a rock and wait- 
ed for the wounded animal to come my 
way, as it is usually better to remain 
quietly in one place rather than to stir 
around. 
F OR a long time nothing could be 
heard but the scream of a giant 
woodpecker, and the angry chatter- 
ing of a little squirrel who sat on a log 
and abused me for daring to intrude 
on his domains. 
I had almost given. up hopes of seeing 
the deer, when a twig snapping to the 
right of me caused me to look warily 
in that direction and there, stepping 
along, was the deer. I fired at it just 
above the foreleg and it went down, 
and by the. time Archie arrived I had it 
gutted and ready to pack. 
As we were quite a long way from 
the boat we had to devise means of get- 
ting our kill through the woods to the 
lake side. 
We achieved this end by slitting one 
hind and one foreleg just above the 
foot, and slipping the opposite leg in 
through this. We then passed a birch 
pole through the trussed up legs, hoist- 
ed the ends upon our shoulders, and 
hiked for the boat. 
The deer was a doe, which I regret- 
ted, as I never like to kill them, al- 
though the law permits it. In my opin- 
ion. deer should be protected, as re- 
gards the killing of the female, just the 
same as are the moose; more so, in fact, 
as the moose, owing to their size, can 
easily defend themselves against the 
wolves — a thing the deer are unable 
to do and it is also bad policy to kill 
the productive female of any species. 
T HE two members of our party were 
at the boat landing waiting for us, 
having been unsuccessful in locat- 
ing the other two deer. As we were 
then pretty tired we boarded our launch 
and made for camp. The other party 
had been home some time before us, for 
which we were thankful, as they had a 
good hot supper all ready when we ar- 
rived. 
They had had an exciting time, hav- 
ing shot a bull-moose with a spread of 
59 inches. Tommy, the greenhorn of the 
party, who had never in all his life shot 
anything bigger than a rabbit, and who 
had never before been in our Northern 
woods, was the lucky shot. From the 
story we got from them, it appears that 
they had seen several old trails of deer 
and caribou, and had come upon the 
fresh tracks of three moose which had 
just crossed the tote-road. • 
Leaving Tommy on the tote-road, 
with instructions to stick right there 
and, in the event of their not returning 
within three hours, to retrace his steps 
and go back to camp the way they had 
come in, the three others plunged into 
the woods upon the trail of the moose. 
Tommy, as per instructions, looked 
from time to time up and down the 
tote-road, on the lookout for game, but 
soon giving up hopes of seeing anything, 
he laid down his rifle and started in to 
eat his lunch. He had just about fin- 
ished when, upon looking down the road 
he saw, coming towards him, three 
moose which were browsing off the hazel 
twigs growing along the trail. Tommy 
told us later that he was in a blue 
funk, as the bull seemed, in his excited 
state, to be about fifty feet tall. 
Warily pulling his rifle towards him 
he got a bead on the big fellow’s chest 
and fired, and saw, to his utter amaze- 
ment, that he had downed a thousand 
pound moose, with a spread of horns 
well above the average. 
He was so delighted that he immedi- 
ately emptied his remaining shells into 
the air, and it was this fusillade which 
brought the others of the party — who 
had been trailing the moose — back to 
see what the bombardment was all 
about. 
We went back the following day and 
cut up the moose, bringing in the head. 
Later on we returned for the meat. 
We had as much as the eight of us 
could manage to pack on the return 
journey. 
The following morning upon turning 
out, a good sheet of ice could be seen 
on the lake, and Xavier reckoned we 
might soon expect the big freeze-up, so 
suggested that we should go that morn- 
ing to a very hilly part of the district 
up the lake shore, where caribou were 
to be found. Getting aboard the launch, 
we made off up the lake, and, as our 
gasoline supply was beginning to run 
low, we concluded this was the last trip 
we would be able to make before our 
final one to Nipigon, on the homeward 
j ourney. 
Reaching the caribou ground we 
found it composed of long hilly ridges 
with wooded valleys running between. 
On one of these ridges we at last saw 
a herd of about nine browsing along the 
side, where, owing to its southern ex- 
posure, the vegetation was still green. 
We were then over half a mile from 
them, and at once made plans to get 
within range. 
The caribou have a very keen scent, 
and we knew that if they ever got a 
whiff of us, they would go loping away 
out of range. The wind was blowing 
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