0T POUNDED A.D.I873 Cj fcu _ 
Vol. LXXXVII 
NOVEMBER, 1917 
No. 11 
MOOSE HUNTING IN CANADA 
THERE IS MORE REAL COMFORT TO BE FOUND IN A BIRCH BARK CAMP THAN 
IN THE MOST LUXURIOUSLY FURNISHED AND CAREFULLY APPOINTED DWELLING 
By THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN 
M OOSE-HUNTING, if it has no other 
advantages, at least leads a man to 
solitude and the woods, and life in 
the woods tends to develop many excellent 
qualities which are not invariably produced 
by what we are pleased to call our civiliza¬ 
tion. It makes a man patient and able to 
bear constant dis¬ 
appointments ; it 
enables him to en¬ 
dure hardships 
with indifference, 
and it produces a 
feeling of self-re¬ 
liance which is 
both pleasant and ser¬ 
viceable. True luxury, 
to my mind, is only to be 
found in such a life. No 
man who has not experienced 
it knows what an exhilarat¬ 
ing feeling it is to be entirely inde¬ 
pendent of weather, comparatively indif¬ 
ferent to hunger, thirst, cold, and heat, and 
to feel himself capable, not only of sup¬ 
porting existence, but of enjoying life 
thoroughly, and that by the mere exercise 
of his own faculties. 
Happiness consists in having few wants 
and being able to satisfy them, and there 
is more real comfort to be found in a 
birch-bark camp than in the most luxu¬ 
riously furnished and carefully appointed 
dwelling. Such a home I have often 
helped to make. It does not belong to any 
recognized order of architecture, although 
it may fairly claim an ancient origin. To 
erect it requires no great exercise of skill, 
and calls for no training in art schools. 
The material for its construction is found 
in every part of the Canadian forests. I 
will briefly describe its construction. 
A BIRCH-BARK camp is made in 
many ways. The best plan is to 
build it in the form of a square, 
varying in size according to the number 
of inhabitants that you propose to accom¬ 
modate. Having selected a suitable level 
spot and cleared away the shrubs and rub¬ 
bish, you proceed ta make four low walls 
composed of two or three small suitable¬ 
sized pine logs laid one on the other, and 
on these little low walls so constructed you 
raise the frame-work of the camp. This 
consists of light thin poles, 
the lower ends being stuck 
into the upper surface of the 
pine trees which form the 
walls, and the upper ends 
leaning against and support¬ 
ing each other. The next operation is to 
strip large sheets of bark off the birch 
trees, and thatch these poles with them to 
within a foot or two of the top, leaving a 
sufficient aperture for the smoke to escape. 
Other poles are then laid upon the sheets 
of birch-bark to keep them in their places. 
A small door-way is left in one side, and 
a door is constructed out of slabs of wood, 
or out of the skin of some animal. The 
uppermost log is hewn through with an 
ax, so that the wall shall not be incon¬ 
veniently high to step over, and the hut is 
finished. Such a camp is perfectly imper¬ 
vious to wind or weather, or, rather, can 
be made so by filling 
up the joints and 
cracks between the 
sheets of birch-bark 
and the interstices be¬ 
tween the pine logs 
with moss and dry 
leaves. You next level 
off the ground inside, 
and on the three sides 
of the square strew it 
thickly with the small 
tops of the sapin, or Can¬ 
ada balsam fir, for a breadth of 
about four feet; then take some long 
pliant ash saplings or withy rods and peg 
them down along the edge of the pine tops 
to keep your bed or carpet in its place, 
leaving a bare space in the center of the 
hut, where you make your fire. Two or 
three rough slabs of pine, to act as shelves, 
must then be fixed into the wall, a couple 
of portage-straps, or tump-lines stretched 
across, on which to hang your clothes, and 
the habitation is complete. 
1 OUGHT, perhaps, to explain what a 
portage-strap” and a “portage” are. 
Many French and Spanish words have 
become incorporated with the English lan¬ 
guage in America. The Western cattle¬ 
man, or farmer, speaks of his farm or 
house as his “ranche,” calls the inclosure 
into which he drives his stock a “corral,” 
fastens his horse with a “lariat," digs an 
“acequia” to irrigate his land, gets lost in 
the “chapparal,” instead of the bush, and 
uses commonly many other Spanish words 
and expressions. No hunter or trapper 
talks of hiding anything; he “caches” it, 
and he calls the place where he has stowed 
