Dec. 9, 1911] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
835 
der one piece and take it straight across the two- 
mile swamp without a rest. This is repeated until 
the goods are portaged. By the other method 
three distinct carries are made. The loads are 
first piled upon the dry spot noted above, then 
carried to a rock about two-thirds of the dis¬ 
tance across, and finally portaged the remainder 
of the distance. Of course the full load of two 
pieces is carried when this plan is followed. 
Mr. Campbell disagreed with the guide at this 
point, and upon his assuming the leadership, the 
guide took himself off in high dudgeon; so a 
combination of the two methods was adopted, 
and after a rest at the dry spot each man carried 
one piece to the far side of the portage. Then 
all hands assisted in pulling the great York boat 
across, and at 2 o’clock on the afternoon of Sep'. 
14 we embarked upon the waters of God’s Lake. 
A fair breeze enabled the boats to sail nearly the 
T HIS year it was not generally known, so 
I was told, that moose hunting would be 
permitted within the boundaries of the 
Temagami Forest Reserve, but be that as it 
may, our party and one other were the only 
ones to go in via Temagami Station during the 
first ten days of the season. 
The other party hunted the country around 
Obabika Lake, returning after two weeks 
empty-handed. They had white men for guides, 
complaining of them bitterly because they would 
not hunt before 8 a. m., nor would they go out 
at all during rainy weather. We had Indians, 
who were up before daybreak and were not 
afraid of wet weather. There were four of 
them—Quill and Abe McKenzie, William and 
an old-fashioned Indian, John Cheche. 
Our party consisted of S. and K., mining men 
of Cobalt, C. and myself. S. had been carrying 
the burden of this hunt for several months, 
when he first engaged the guides. He had also 
made a trip with Quill into the latter’s hunting 
grounds to look over the prospects for good 
shooting there. They found moose sign plenti¬ 
ful, but when we were ready to go in, Oct. 14, 
the country was too dry for canoe travel, so 
we went to William’s hunting grounds around 
Whitefish Lake. 
The Indians who hunt and trap in this coun¬ 
try and sell their furs to the Hudson’s Bay 
trading post on Bear Island, have their own 
hunting grounds as of yore, and they do not 
trap in each other’s territory. Abe said there were 
about fifty Indians trapping around this post. 
We went by boat to William’s winter home 
on Whitefish Bay. He suggested that we use 
his log cabin for our home camp, which we did, 
since it was in good shape, not having been 
occupied since the previous winter. Nothing in 
the shape of bedding had been left in the cabin, 
so when we had filled the bunks with fresh 
spruce branches we had as clean and sweet a 
bed as a person could wish for. 
Everything was in order by the 16th. We 
had a half mile portage to Whitefish Lake, 
entire distance of twenty miles down the coast. 
At 5 o’clock the post was reached, and while 
the men were carrying their loads into the store¬ 
houses, I unpacked my belongings in the little 
office and prepared to make myself at home. 
The season for York boating is a short one. 
In the early fall the great hulks are drawn up 
on the shore and left to mutely weather the ter¬ 
rific storms that swoop down upon them when 
winter assumes the crown. In the following May 
or June, or sometimes as late as July, when the 
snows have melted and the watercourses are 
again open, the York boat is quickly repaired 
and placed in commission. The faithful old craft 
remains staunch and true for many years, and 
when its days of strenuous battling with winds 
and waves are over, it still gives proof of its 
devotion to human kind by carrying fish, fuel and 
supplies upon the placid waters near the posts. 
which was quickly accomplished. I stepped into 
our canoe and took a paddle, John Cheche 
pushed off and away we started for the north 
end of the lake. Before we had warmed to 
our work, we heard a bombardment back in 
the first bay, not 500 yards from the portage 
C. and Abe had swung around the first point 
of land into this bay, and a short distance ahead 
a bull and cow moose stood up to their bellies 
in the water. The scene had changed so sud¬ 
denly that C. was fluttering when he started to 
shoot, which caused mostly misses for the five 
shots fired at the moose while it was in the 
water. Only one bullet took effect; that was 
in the hip and broke him down, so that he 
went back slowly into the woods. C. was right 
after him, getting in three shots at close range. 
Another bull stood within fifty yards of where 
this one fell, an undisturbed onlooker, ap¬ 
parently trying to make out what it was all 
about. The cow did not leave the water until 
they had paddled past her and beached the 
canoe. She had stood her ground during all 
the fuss and her retreat was orderly when she 
did decide to leave. 
These three moose acted very differently from 
those afterward seen. This was a quick start 
and gave promise of being an easy hunt, but 
time dispelled all that. There seems to be no 
rule of action followed by the deer family, some¬ 
times they show barnyard stupidity and at other 
times are wild as hawks. Why is it that it is 
so easy to approach a moose in a canoe while 
the moose is in the water? It may be curiosity; 
it may be lack of fear, because of never having 
been molested, that causes them so many times 
to stand their ground. • But this country is 
hunted by the Indians regardless of the seasons, 
and the moose is regarded as one of the wildest 
members of the deer family. I believe he is 
the slowest thinker. 
All the other moose seen on this trip were 
wild. Yet of the first three seen, a bull and cow 
stood by watching the shooting in an indif¬ 
ferent manner. 
After the excitement was over, C. claimed that 
the combination rear sight on his rifle was 
tipped forward, and that he had been shooting 
without looking through the peep. If so, he 
shot by guess work. At any rate, it accounted 
for the misses to his own satisfaction. He had 
a good trophy on the very threshold of the 
hunt, and so had a contented mind, an easy 
time around the home camp, with plenty of time 
in which to fish for lake trout. At the same 
time we gave thanks for the early supply of 
fresh meat. We found the meat very good, and 
we practically finished it before leaving the 
woods. The Indians kill only the cows and 
young bulls unless driven by circumstances to 
kill the bulls. The meat of the former is more 
tender and the skins the most desirable for 
moccasins. The skin of the bulls is too thick 
for their use. This would not apply to the 
spikehorns, since their skin is about the same 
thickness as the cow’s and as easily worked up. 
The next morning early John and I again 
tramped the portage tO' Whitefish Lake. The 
lake was covered with a dense fog. Frequently 
a mink would swim alertly past us, and John 
called one to within a paddle’s length of the 
canoe by making a squeaking noise in drawing 
the air through his teeth. Another mink swam 
past us, coming from the direction of the other 
shore. We were sure that he had a squirrel in 
his mouth, but could not tell absolutely since 
he was a little too far away. He was probably 
taking a short cut home. 
The fog soon disappeared before the rising 
sun, and as the morning wore on, moose hunt¬ 
ing played a small part, indeed it was all but 
forgotten in the charm of a perfect day. Our 
canoe rested on as placid a lake as man ever 
beheld. The surrounding hills were covered 
with hardwood trees in their autumn foliage, 
which was reflected, just as brilliant, from the 
bosom of the lake. In the intense stillness we 
could hear the splash of jumping fish which 
were too far away for the eye to detect the 
cause, and so loud that we were several times 
sure that a moose was in the water. We heard 
the long-drawn-out call of a cow moose; also 
from another direction the sound made by a 
bull striking his horns against a tree; and so 
we idled away the day. The next forenoon we 
were back on the lake, quite close in shore, 
watching and listening. I noticed that John 
kept his face turned toward the opposite shore. 
I wondered why. It was far beyond my range, 
and my eyesight is strong. I had thought sev¬ 
eral times that field glasses would be the very 
thing. Suddenly John stiffened and said, 
“Moose back in bay,” and with that dug his 
paddle into the water. I did likewise and we 
made fast time, but while I kept my eyes on 
the bay and the distance was fast growing less, 
I never saw those moose, for we had used an 
island as a screen the latter part of the dis¬ 
tance, and when we paddled out from behind 
it, the moose had gone. 
S. and Quill were on the lake but a mile 
below us, when we first started to paddle, and 
before we had gone far, they, too, headed for 
the bay under full pressure. The Indians do 
not stand upon ceremony in a case of this kind. 
They prefer to race for the prize. Quill also 
had seen the moose. There were two. I after¬ 
ward asked S. if he had seen them. He had 
not, and yet when we all paddled into the bay 
Moose Hunting in Temagami 
By DIXMONT 
