March 18, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
403 
AN ACADIAN MOOSE HUNT. 
It was raining when we crossed the boundary 
between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, it 
was raining at Truro, and when the Inter¬ 
colonial train in which we were traveling 
dropped us at a little wayside station in the 
heart of the woods cataracts of water were 
pouring down from a melancholy sky on a yet 
more melancholy earth. Our guides, who met 
11s on the platform, feeling that some apology 
for the weather was necessary, made haste to 
assure us that the season was quite exception¬ 
ally pluvial, and so, indeed, it was. As a rule, 
clear, bright days and starlit nights characterize 
the Acadian autumn, and only about once in 
ten years does persistent bad weather place the 
hunter at a disadvantage. We were unfortunate 
in having hit the exception rather than the 
rule; but, in spite of meteorological drawbacks, 
our stay in the province was enjoyable and 
from the sportsman’s point of view successful, 
for the variety of game it provides Nova Scotia 
is a veritable hunter’s paradise. A country less 
than half the size of England that yields an¬ 
nually from 500 to Soo moose might reasonably 
expect to rank high in the favor of British 
Nimrods; but, curiously enough, Nova Scotia 
has always been rather a terra incognita to the 
average English sportsman, who, in ignorance 
of what may be found there, has gone further 
afield, to work harder and likely enough, fare 
worse. Consequently the moose grounds of 
the counties of Annapolis, Cumberland, Digby, 
Guysborough, Halifax, Lunenburg, Queens, 
Shelburne and Yarmouth are still practically 
unworked. Moreover, the heads obtained are 
usually of good size and of quality, some of 
the most symmetrical moose antlers in exist¬ 
ence having been secured in Acadie. The cost, 
too, of acquiring a trophy there averages not 
much more than half the expense of a shooting 
expedition in the famous forests of New Bruns¬ 
wick, which is the only province where the 
chance of killing a moose approximates to the 
certainty of shooting one in Nova Scotia. 
Were these Lets more widely known among 
British sportsmen, the land of Evangeline 
would not want for those to sing her praise as 
a sporting courfry. 
We spe»-t the night at the house of Sandy, 
one of tb.» guides, and in the morning, the 
weather having cleared, Sandy’s son drove us 
eighteen miles back into the woods over a trail 
that, as they say in those parts, presently turned 
itself into a rabbit track and ran under a stump. 
This does not sound like getting very close to 
the primitive heart of nature, but ’ in Nova 
Scotia- remoteness is often a matter of inacces¬ 
sibility rather than of distance, and the scene 
of our hunt was one of the most difficult spots 
to reach in the whole province. Owing to this 
fact only a few native woodsmen had ever 
hunted there, and they but seldom, for it is 
characteristic of indigenous hunters that they 
travel by preference along the line of least re¬ 
sistance, leaving avoidable hardships to be con¬ 
quered in a spirit of sport by those to whom 
hunting is not a means of gaining a livelihood. 
Game was therefore exceptionally abundant in 
our chosen locality, and while we were packing 
over the last four miles, where horse transpor¬ 
tation was out of the question, the signs of 
both moose and bear were frequently in evi¬ 
dence. Just before we reached our camping 
site Mr. Keeling, who as a boy had been an 
expert knife thrower, hurled his hunting knife 
at a grouse sitting close up against the bole 
of a tree, and actually nailed the bird to the 
trunk, so that he was obliged to remove his 
pack and climb up to release it. 
Our first night in camp was most uncom¬ 
fortable. Rain fell heavily till near daybreak, 
and, lying on our bed of fir tips under a canvas 
lean-to, we bewailed the lack of a telescoping 
principle in the human anatomy that would ad¬ 
mit of drawing one’s legs in out of the wet. 
But the morning dawned clear, and the day 
promised to be fine. The air became rapidly 
keener, the sun went into a cloud, and before 
breakfast was over a “sleepy” snow was falling. 
By nine o’clock there was as pretty a tracking 
RECORD BAGS 
of Quail are made with 
FRANCUTTE and KNOCKABOUT 
FEATHERWEIGHT GUNS 
We have the finest assortment, 
especially built for Southern 
Shooting. 12, 16, 20 and in 
28 gauges. 
Von Lengerke Detmold 
Fifth Avenue "Building 
200 FIFTH AVENUE 
Between 23d <21 24th Streets New York City, N. Y. 
ANGLING MEMORIES 
Seasonable Books for the Sportsman’s Library 
MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH 
MY ANGLING FRIENDS 
Both by FRED MATHER 
These two volumes are a source of endless delight to the fisherman. They 
deal with every phase of the gentle sport from bent pins and willow poles to 
salmon flies and special rods—with every kind of fish as well. 
They are full of a quaint philosophy, written with a rare appreciation of human 
nature, and comprising sketches of angling “characters” as well as well-known men 
who were Mr. Mather’s brethren of the angle. Much of other sport and adventure 
beside fishing will be found between the covers of these books. These two large, 
splendidly bound, splendidly printed, and richly illustrated volumes of 400 pages 
each regularly sell for $2 each. While they last we offer 
Both together, postpaid, for $3.00 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY, NEW YORK 
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A 
A Classic for Sportsmen 
AMERICAN BIG GAME IN ITS HAUNTS 
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■ ■ - Boone and Crockett Club Series - ■■ ■ 
Edited by GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL 
An invaluable work not alone for the sportsman, but for the student and lover 
of wild life. Treats of big game preservation and protection in the broader sense; 
tells of the habits, habitat and life history of the larger wild animals; touches upon 
the problem of the public forest domain, and is rounded out by interesting hunting 
reminiscences by such leaders in the fraternity of big-game hunters as Madison 
Grant, Paul J. Dashiell, George Bird Grinnell, Jas. H. Kidder and W. Lord Smith. 
Bound in cloth, library edition, heavy paper, richly illustrated, 497 pages. J 
Postpaid, $2.50 V 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO., 127 Franklin Street, NEW YORK CITY * 
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