A Moose Hunt in Quebec. 
Officials of the Canadian Pacific Railroad 
Company had related to me time after time ac¬ 
counts of the excellent moose hunting in the Kip- 
pewa district of Quebec, but what most attracted 
my attention was a story they never failed to 
tell about one particular moose. They claimed 
that this moose could be known by the peculiar 
gray sheen of his coat and his enormous propor¬ 
tions. He was said to carry a tremendous spread 
of antlers. He was known by all the Indian 
guides, for many hunters had stalked this animal 
and some had been fortunate enough to get a 
shot, but by some miraculous agency he had in¬ 
variably escaped. At length I determined to get 
this monster. 
I met two gentlemen in Montreal by agree¬ 
ment on the morning of Nov. 13, 1909. The dis¬ 
trict we were to traverse had been lumbered 
twelve years ago. It was known to contain deer, 
bear, wolves and fur-bearing animals, as well as 
moose. We checked our packs to Kippewa, 
which is at the end of a branch of the Canadian 
Pacific on Kippewa Lake. The main line is left 
at the smart little village of Mattaw r a, at the 
junction of the Ottawa and Mattawa rivers, 
and we outfitted at Shannon and Fraser s for 
our trip into the woods thirty-five miles west. 
The country everywhere is beautiful with 
lakes, some connected by canals which will ac¬ 
commodate a canoe and often a small steamboat, 
but many of the lakes are only to be reached 
over portages. At Kippewa we employed two 
native guides known as Albert and Louis. Louis 
is a young, almost full-blood Indian, big-boned 
and powerful. They call him Big Louis. He is 
as lithe as a panther and tireless. No human ex¬ 
ertion is so great as to perceptibly affect him. 
Like most Indians, he is taciturn, but when he 
speaks his broken English is quaint and pic¬ 
turesque and always briefly to the point. Albert 
is of Scotch-Indian extraction and not much 
older than Louis. He is well schooled in the 
manners and secrets of the woods. 
Captain Kelly, who runs the small steamboat 
Alice, was to meet us at 9 o’clock Sunday morn¬ 
ing and convey our supplies and camp equipment 
part of the distance, but failed to appear at the 
agreed time, and after waiting for him until 
half-past eleven, we packed all our duffle into 
birch bark canoes and the five of us started down 
Kippewa Lake with a stiff wind blowing against 
us. The morning was clear and vitalizing. I 
shall never forget how the wild spirit of things 
grasped me that November day, how the bound¬ 
less freedom of the country seemed to inspire 
and lift me into a rea'm of absolute ecstacy as 
we paddled along the shores of Lake Kippewa. 
Louis sat silent in the bow of my canoe and I 
ould see his powerful shoulders cut clear against 
he pure azure, working with marvelous regu¬ 
larity at the paddle. Beyond stretched the sink¬ 
ing fringe of woods and water, and the far blue 
light of the northern sky. All of this seemed to 
me. after a long summer and the confinement of 
office work, to speak of health and infinite life. 
We had not paddled over three miles before 
we discovered emerging from the woods a large 
buck at which we shot twice and missed. Dur¬ 
ing the day we sighted several deer, but none 
CUTTING A TRAIL TO THE MOOSE. 
i 
LAKE BOIS FRANCE. 
came within range. Once we saw a deer plunge 
into the water, leaving a hungry wolf baffled on 
the shore. The deer swam to safety on the 
further side of the lake and was quickly lost 
sight of in the dense thickets of young spruce. 
It was night when we landed at the portage 
between the west extremity of Kippewa Lake and 
Lake Bois France. The temperature was thirty 
degrees above zero, snow four inches deep and 
the portage a mile long. We had 1,200 pounds 
of baggage and supplies made up of many pack¬ 
ages besides two canoes to tote across. It was 
no easy job. There is no darker place than the 
forest on a starless night; nowhere is walking 
fraught with more difficulty. The labor of carry¬ 
ing a hundred pounds of baggage in the dark 
over a rough trail with your moccasined feet 
slipping and sliding in the soft snow will be 
understood by those who have tried it. 
At last the carry was made, the canoes loaded 
and then a new barrier confronted us—the task 
of breaking ice for over twenty rods in the dark 
so our canoes could get safely into the open 
waters of Lake Bois France. The work of pro¬ 
tecting the frail bark of the canoes from punc¬ 
ture by the ice caused us considerable anxiety. 
However, we came through and into the open 
water without accident. Here we found the 
waves running so high they broke over the gun¬ 
wales of the heavily loaded canoes. When we 
reached our destination we were saturated and 
the boats nearly ready to sink. The entire party 
were so cold and stiffened that we were hardly 
able to rise from our cramped positions. We 
took possession of the upper story of a partly 
dilapidated old logging camp. It had been used 
by some camping party before our coming. The 
furniture consisted of a box stove and two beds 
of boughs. We got our duffle into the building 
and kindled a fire. Everywhere there were holes 
and cracks in the structure and the floor was so 
loose it admitted the wind which blew under¬ 
neath. We made ourselves reasonably comfort¬ 
able and got our first supper. Shortly after the 
“inner man’’ had been appeased we crept into 
our sleeping bags, and despite tired, sore muscles 
and the weather-beaten condition of our camp, 
slept soundly until daybreak. 
Next morning we battened up the old building 
and made things reasonably comfortable. We 
then began each day to take long trips in vari¬ 
ous directions through the woods and by canoe. 
I obtained numerous photographs of moose. We 
saw altogether twenty of the noblest game ani¬ 
mals on the American continent. We found deer 
tracks in the thick undergrowth near the shore 
of all the lakes, but few on the hardwood ridges, 
undoubtedly because the wolves are very trouble¬ 
some to the deer, and therefore the deer inhabit 
the territory close to the water, so that they may 
escape when pursued. 
On the third day we breakfasted early. After 
breakfast I inquired of Louis: “What are we 
going to do to-day?” “Oh, get moose, s pose, 
he said, disinterestedly. I followed that ques¬ 
tion by saying: “Louis, if you take me wheie 
the big moose lives and I get him I will give you 
an Adirondack canoe—a guide boat. They aie 
much lighter and more seaworthy than your 
birchbark canoes.” Louis’ eyes sparkled witn 
satisfaction, but nothing escaped his lips. Again 
I addressed him: “\\ hat way do we go to- 
