272 
FOREST 
AN 1 ) STREAM 
May, 1918 
IN CASSIAR, THE NEW GAME COUNTRY 
THE CONCLUDING CHAPTER OF THIS STORY OF ALASKAN GAME FIELDS DESCRIBES 
THE INDIAN’S SKILLFUL METHOD OF HUNTING THE GREAT MOOSE OF THE CASSIAR 
By HENRY BANNON 
Photograph by Worden Wrangell. 
Face of great glacier of the Stikine. This glacier has a frontage of five miles on the river 
O N the sixteenth we decided to move 
camp back to our old camp near the 
mountains where I had killed my 
Stone ram. The day was clearing and 
we hoped for good weather. Arthur went 
ahead and killed an unusually fine moose. 
The spread of its antlers was 61^2 inches, 
the palms 32 by 11 inches and there were 
20 points. The stomach of the moose was 
empty and its liver light in color, showing 
the near approach of the rutting season. 
During this season the bulls eat little, if at 
all. When Arthur and his guide came 
into camp we all rejoiced at their success. 
This moose is the largest killed in Cassiar 
' in 1917. 
But our hope that the storm was over 
was soon a lost one, for the wind that 
evening brought with it a fine, penetrating 
snow and rain that continued the next day. 
Though not cold the weather continued 
stormy in the mountains so we started on 
the return trip to Nahlin, my brother suc¬ 
cessfully hunting across the peaks for 
rams and I at the lower level for moose, 
while the pack train took the bottom. On 
these trips I saw very fresh grizzly signs 
in abundance, but signs only as the grizzly 
travels fast. One day about noon, while 
the guide had gone for water to make tea 
for our lunch, I took the glasses to look 
over the country for moose and saw a 
very fine bull standing at a point of tim¬ 
ber more than a mile away. He was not 
visible to the naked eye. Before the guide 
returned the moose walked slowly into the 
timber and I was sure that he intended 
to lie down as they usually do at this time 
of the day. As soon as the guide was in¬ 
formed of this incident he threw away 
the water and we started at once for the 
moose. We had gone but a short distance 
HIS article concludes the story 
of hunting in the Cassiar game 
fields which began in the February 
issue. Mr. Bannon will be glad to 
answer any question in regard to this 
country and may be addressed in 
care of Forest and Stream. [Editors.] 
when we saw two bulls walking slowly up 
a draw within easy shot, but their antlers 
were poorly formed so we let them go. 
When about half way to the location of 
the big bull we met Arthur, Blair and the 
guide at lunch so we joined them and ex¬ 
tended an invitation to them to witness 
the moose hunt, which was accepted. All 
went to a ridge overlooking a point where 
I had seen the moose and we discovered 
one lying down, but as he seemed small I 
left the rest of the party there and with 
the guide went farther around the ridge 
to get a good look at him. When our 
view widened we discovered a large bull 
lying down about fifty yards from the small 
one and I am sure he is the same one that 
I saw go into the timber. Soon the smaller 
bull got up and we expected the larger 
one to do so but he did not. The head and 
shoulders of the big bull were visible but 
the rest of his body was concealed by the 
brush. The shot struck and as the bull 
rose slowly we could tell that it was fatal, 
but I emptied the magazine to make sure 
of not losing a cripple. My guide was 
charged by a wounded moose the year be¬ 
fore and he was not in favor of taking 
any chances. 
In the meantime the gallery, a most crit¬ 
ical one, was greatly excited. They thought 
I was shooting at the small bull and miss¬ 
ing every shot as that animal paid no at¬ 
tention to the shots. They were roundly 
condemning the poor shooting when we 
shouted to them that we had killed an¬ 
other and better moose. The height of 
this bull at the withers was six feet five 
inches, the spread of his antlers 52^ 
inches, the palms 39 by 14 inches and there 
were 28 points. The antlers carried well 
formed fenders, were symmetrical in every 
way, and sufficiently massive to make a 
trophy of which I am proud. As the vel¬ 
vet had been shed early, the antlers were 
colored by the natural process of rubbing 
against the brush. I appreciate this moose 
all the more because he was killed in 
fairer chase than if killed while in the 
frenzy of the rut. Although entitled under 
my license to two moose, I made no effort 
to get another. We saw several after¬ 
wards and upon five or six occasions they 
came quite close to our camp. 
L EAVING the guides to skin out the 
head and dress the carcass, Arthur, 
Blair and I proceeded to the camp 
where we were to meet the pack train. We 
became involved in a muskeg on the way in 
and a terrible time we had with the horses 
miring in the almost bottomless bog and in 
making our way through willow brush 
higher than our heads and over roots and 
branches growing along the ground just 
high enough to impede each step. Finally 
Arthur climbed a tall tree and located a 
short cut to high ground and we were soon 
there and in camp. The Indians came in a 
few minutes after us. They can travel 
through these muskegs like a moose and 
go straight to camp, while the white hunter 
flounders around in circles. 
