TA me me 
PORES 
Vol. XCV, No. 12 

STREAM 
December, 1925 
Bringing Home a Moose 
An Inexperienced Party Secures a Moose 
Within a Half Day’s Journey of Montreal 
tures of Canadian life, perhaps 
the Dominion’s greatest and 
most unique charm, is the combination 
of the essentially primitive with the 
most progressive advance in the ways 
of modern civilization. In many re- 
spects Canada, as the newest of devel- 
oping nations, is right to the fore in 
Oye of the most enthralling fea- 
_ those features which we are wont to 
consider mark the progress of human 
enterprise. At the same time, as a land 
evolving from the raw, she is in others 
very close to the absolute primordial. 
One of the eternally amazing things is 
that the Dominion’s big, thriving, mod- 
ern cities, which in convenience and 
facility are not surpassed the world 
over, have the untamed wilderness at 
their backdoor, and within the space 
of an hour or two one can step from 
sumptuous office or comfortably ap- 
pointed apartment into the unsullied 
realm of nature. This is the outstand- 
ing thought after stealing away for a 
week into the Laurentians. 
It is annoying when one has been so 
engrossed in serving one’s employers 
to discover that the conventional holi- 
day season has passed without one’s 
having shared in it, and the realiza- 
tion that you are very much alone in 
having to jam in a vacation in the tag 
end of the year robs you of a justi- 
fiable sense of satisfaction in having 
been found so indispensable. It must 
have been a common appreciation of 
our supreme working value, no less 
than an inability to conceive of leisure 
which did not involve flannel pants and 
chairs on the verandah, which brought 
the four of us together a few days 
prior to the first of November. We 
went into serious conference. 
N Canada there is clearly nowhere 
to go in November but the wilds, 
and after a year at a desk the wilds 
call pretty loudly if one gives them but 
half a chance and takes time to listen. 
Contents Copyrighted by Forest and Stream Pub, 
By E. L. CHICANOT 
One begins correctly to diagnose his 
ills as a superfluity of civilization as 
in imagination he pictures a lonely log 
cabin in the heart of the woods, almost 
as aor me 
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The author and his trophy. 
smells the smoke of the wood fire, and 
feels dully beating the pulsating heart 
of nature. We had been too long away 
from mother nature’s bosom and knew 
it was good for us to get back, but at 
the same time we wanted an object. 
“Let’s get a moose,’ said someone. 
It was something none of us had ever 
done before. Such a project seemed 
to be the very thing to meet our wild 
mood. We talked it over enthusiasti- 
cally and the decision was unanimous. 
After a good deal of further talk we 
picked out the country of the Devil 
Co, 

River and Lakes in the Laurentian 
mountain area as the locality which 
was to provide the moose. We were 
not especially aware that there was 
any great supply of the lordly animal 
there. We were prompted to this de- 
cision largely by the fact that none of 
us had ever been in that country or 
knew anything about it. And then it 
looked so alluring on the map, with the 
tortuous river snaking its way over a 
large blank space that was quite inno- 
cent of any printing, and joining up 
the five lakes that as yet are known 
only by numbers. 
fa ee EN See on the last day of 
October, four highly respectable 
citizens, swelled by the addition of two 
others, equally respectable, who had, 
when being informed of our expedition, 
recollected a similar disregard of the 
conventional holiday season, the six 
being cleverly disguised, alighted from 
the Canadian Pacific train at the vil- 
lage of St. Jovite, four hours from 
Montreal, together with a heterogene- 
ous collection of artillery and baggage. 
The evening was spent in making ar- 
rangements for a guide and in assem- 
bling packs, going carefully over our 
stuff and deciding which of the abso- 
lutely indispensable things we had 
brought with us we could get along 
without. 
HE first leg of the journey was a 
twenty-mile motor drive from St. 
Jovite to an accessible point on the 
Devil River. The bus, loaded to c¢a- 
pacity with its freight human, lethal, 
protective, culinary, and photographic 
negotiated the distance in about two 
hours. Twenty miles of travel in the 
Laurentians, anywhere, in any direc- 
tion, is entrancing and this trip was 
no exception. We reached the river 
bank after having run the gamut of 
the natural beauties of mountain and 
lakeland and after having traversed 
107 
