May, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
273 
The gasoline boat loaded with trophies aground on a sandbar 
Thu Moose of Telegraph Creek. 
T has only been within recent years that 
moose ranged in the Telegraph Creek 
region. The first one was killed in the 
early seventies and then one was only 
killed occasionally until 1896 at which time 
they became plentiful and have increased 
so rapidly that moose meat is regularly 
sold at Telegraph Creek for fifteen cents 
a pound. There are two causes for the 
entrance of the moose into this territory. 
One is that the increase from the moose 
to the north must find a new range or the 
feed in that range would become scarce. 
In doing so they have moved into this ter¬ 
ritory. The other reason, and it is related 
to the first, is that several years ago an 
Indian set out a forest fire that consumed 
much timber. Willow brush took the place 
of the timber and this brush is the princi¬ 
pal, winter food of the moose. They natu¬ 
rally came to the range where their food 
could be found. 
This bears out the general law which 
controls the propagation of animal species, 
including primitive man, namely, that they 
will only increase as there is a supply of 
food. Just as the burning of a forest is’ 
followed by a growth of tender shoots, 
and this results in an increase of rabbits 
which live on the shoots and foxes 
which live on the rabbits, so the growth 
of the willow brush brought the moose be¬ 
cause it was their winter food. 
There is considerable waste of the big 
game of this region by the Indian. Of 
course the trophy hunter wastes the meat 
of game, but as he only kills males this 
will not decrease production, especially as 
the number of hunters is very limited. But 
the Indian almost invariably kills the fe¬ 
males as their meat is better. 
About November first all able bodied 
Indians go to the mountains and spend 
the winter trapping fur bearing animals. 
It is easier for them to kill game than to 
carry all the meat of one animal into the 
winter camp, so they use but little meat 
from each kill. I am reliably informed 
that last year, between the middle of No¬ 
vember and Christmas, four Indians at 
their winter quarters killed seventeen cari¬ 
bou and eleven moose. Manifestly they 
could not use anything like that amount 
of meat. There is, however, no practical 
way to remedy this waste. But, notwith¬ 
standing this, the swamps, dense forests, 
mountains and difficulty of access to the 
game fields will protect Cassiar as a big 
game country for generations to come. 
The Indian method of hunting moose 
well illustrates their thorough knowledge 
of the art of hunting big game. The Cas¬ 
siar moose are in a mountain country, the 
higher levels of which are barren of trees 
and undergrowth and the lower levels are 
dense with evergreens and many forms of 
low growing bush. The moose are usually 
to be found at the lower levels. The In¬ 
dian hunts high on the sides of the moun¬ 
tain, above or just below timber line, stop¬ 
ping every few hundred yards and search¬ 
ing below with the glasses for moose in 
the bush. The advantage of this plan is 
threefold. In the first place a stalk through 
the dense undergrowth would cause noise 
sufficient to apprise the acute ears of the 
moose of the presence of danger regardless 
of how careful the white hunter may be; 
in the second place the density of the bush 
constitutes a decided limitation upon the 
scope and extent of the hunter’s vision, an$ 
in the third place this thick undergrowth 
makes shooting exceedingly difficult. From 
a point above timber line one can look 
down through the tops of the trees and 
bush and readily catch sight of the game 
as the prominence of the antlers renders 
the bull moose quite conspicuous. It is 
obvious that this method presents long 
shots in nearly each instance, but this is 
more than overcome by the clear view of 
the game and the absence of obstructions 
that would deflect the bullet. 
I confess that the Indian method did not 
impress me until I had tried it out. I 
thought we were wasting time in hunt¬ 
ing moose along the sheep ranges and it 
was not until after I had killed my moose 
that I appreciated the superior skill of the 
Indian. Indeed, when I saw the moose 
that I killed I wanted to creep down into 
the timber in order to get closer, but the 
Indian said: “You no get close. You see 
him now. You go close, you no see him 
and he hear you. Then he go.” And I 
found this to be exactly right, for after I 
had killed the moose and we were on the 
way down to him we lost sight of him and 
did not see him again until within a few 
yards of where he lay. 
Homeward. 
E continued on our way to Nahlin 
and down in the basin found it 
warm when the sun occasionally 
shone, but very chilly when cloudy, and 
the sky was usually overcast. We rode 
through the most beautiful groves of 
quaking aspen, gorgeous in the brightest 
yellow, orange and scarlet. The trail now 
showed many tracks of bear, wolves and 
moose, where two weeks ago there was no 
evidence of the presence of these animals 
in that region. 
We went leisurely down the homeward 
trail to Telegraph Creek with feelings of 
regret that our hunt was over and in the 
hope that we may go again. 
The successful big game hunt is enjoyed 
in three different aspects—anticipation, real¬ 
ization, and retrospection—each with equal 
delight. During the long winter even¬ 
ings, as I look into the fire at my hearth¬ 
stone, the memory of the days in Cassier 
are delightful for there the hunter will 
find game fields equalling those hunted by 
Palliser on the Yellowstone, by. Davy Jack- 
son in Wyoming or by any of the other 
mighty hunters of those years gone by 
when the vast empire west of the Miss¬ 
issippi was without a fence or. a farm. 
(concluded on page 305) 
