THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
The moose is an animal gifted in the highest sense with wariness and 
speed. Its powers of hearing and smelling are perhaps as great as those 
of any woodland mammal, and in the great silent forests in which it dwells 
there is no beast so difficult to approach. It is only when it comes out into 
the open, where man can see it first, that it is at all at a disadvantage; and 
in consequence the hunting of moose in Alaska and Northern British 
Columbia is somewhat easier than in the forests of Eastern Canada, where 
there are no ranges of mountains with large open or semi -open spaces. In 
the former regions moose may often be spied from a long distance and 
directly stalked as elk are in some parts of Norway; but in the east the 
chances of finding a good bull on an open plateau or lake edge is distinctly 
rare. 
There are three methods of hunting the moose employed in North 
America, namely, by still-hunting on the hardwood ridges or following its 
track in the mountains of the North-West with the help of an Indian; calling 
by means of the birch -bark horn; and “crusting,” i.e., following the track 
of the moose in deep snow and running it down on snow-shoes. Of these 
three methods the first is by far the best, although the most arduous. 
In fact it is the only sportsmanlike method of killing this grand animal. 
The long legs of moose enable them to travel with ease over deep snow, 
miry swamps, and fallen timber, so that a man must be sound in wind and 
limb to follow them in their tortuous and extensive wanderings. They 
walk fast, and when not resting or sleeping are constantly on the move, 
so that the hunter must be prepared for severe toil before he has a chance 
of seeing a warrantable bull. Nothing is more delightful on those crisp 
autumn days than to follow the trail of a travelling moose. To a man who 
loves nature in all her silent moods, and likes to study the wonderful 
skill of the child of the forest who accompanies him, there is no finer 
sport, nor one that appeals more to the character of the true hunter, than 
outwitting the giant deer. True, the climbing and the work of hunting is 
neither quite so arduous nor fraught with so many side issues as the 
chase of the mountain sheep, but it has certain qualities of its own that 
are both undefinable and exquisite. It is, in fact, better to hunt moose and 
to fail than to succeed with some meaner quarry. 
No white man, however skilled, is quite the equal of the Red Indian. 
He is in his element noticing the language of the forest, and if he is inclined 
to be communicative, which is rare, explaining it to you. A good white 
hunter can follow a moose track on damp or leafy ground, but only an 
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