


FOREST AND STREAM. 

[Nov. 9, 1907. 



GATE BAG AND GUN | 






eZee ho, 
— =a 


Up in New Brunswick. 
BALTimorE, Nov. 2.—Editor Forest and Stream: 
Some years ago a man who still claimed some 
relationship to youth, though somewhat dis- 
tant, perhaps, and whose elbows were sensi- 
tive by reason of frequent contact with his 
fellow men, sought a temporary refuge in the 
deep and wide forest of the Province of New 
Brunswick. To reach that secluded region 
necessitated, for him, who was a Southron, a 
long journey by rail, by wagon'and lastly on 
foot; but he, being equal to much exertion, 
and impatient for mental refreshment and phy- 
sical isolation, considered the tedium of travel 
only a fair exchange for what he sought. 
For companionship in the out-of-the-way 
place, he chose a native of a settlement which 
marked the end of the only highway in that 
section of country, who, from early youth, had, 
as year after year gave him greater endur- 
ance and sufficient courage to singly confront 
the hap-hazard possibilities attending the trap- 
ping of fur-bearing animals, ventured deeper 
and deeper into the woods, until he became 
familiar with each ridge and hollow, lake, 
stream and spring-hole of a wide stretch of 
woodland, 
That the expedition might have an object 
and a common interest, these new friends re- 
solved to seek a bull moose with such antlers 
as would spread as wide as the widest record. 
Accordingly, day after day they traveled many 
miles among the trees, as many, indeed, as 
their industrious legs could measure, start- 
ling caribou, deer and moose, time and time 
again interrupting the work of the industrious 
beaver, and getting many a well merited scold- 
ing from overhead by the red squirrels. At 
night they lay in a shelter of bark, upon beds 
of boughs, with feet to the fire, conscious 
only of physical comfort and the soothing 
sounds of the night. Late autumn brought a 
fall of moist snow, which clung to the shrub- 
bery and made beautiful lace work of the for- 
est. The animals lay abed throughout the day 
under this condition of things, and they rather 
resented being aroused and sent scurrying 



through the snow-laden boughs in order that 
their heads might be scanned by rude inter- 
iopers. 

IMPROVISED BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIGHT BRANCH, 
At last, through the lattice of frosty 
branches, there was seen a moose whose huge 
horns seemed a grievous weight even for such 
a large beast as he, and in the confusion and 
excitement attending the surprise, he became a 
momentary prisoner by entangling his un- 
wieldly antlers in the tough whitewood bushes, 
amid which he lay. The designing hunter, 
while running to take advantage of the op- 
portunity thus afforded him, likewise met mis- 
fortune in the shape of some unseen obstruc- 
tion, over which he tripped and plunged head- 
ong into the snow. 
During the years that have elapsed since 
this episode, the name New Brunswick has, 
in the hunter’s mind, represented complete de- 
feat, just as the name Jena does to a German 
soldier and Waterloo to a Frenchman. So 
in this year of grace, 1907, this same hunter, 
older by the addition of several strokes upon 
us tally sheet of bygone years, and older still 
because of physical depletion, planned to dis- 
sociate the thought of disappointment from the 
Canadian Province, and once again he fol- 
owed the long course of the steel rails to 
their termination, and once again the younger 
yrother of the trapper met him upon the sta- 
tion platform. It was quite a shock to the 
1unter to find him no longer the chore boy of 
the household, he who had confided, during 
the former drive to the road’s end, his am- 
bition to know the trails of the woods and 
the hiding places of its denizens. The boy had 
become a man, young to be sure, but six feet 
in height, and was now entrusted to guide 

visitors to the camping places nearest the 
clearing. His confidences now related to the 
pretty school teacher who had recently ar- 
rived in the settlement and to his concern lest 
rival swains should make favorable impres- 
sions ere the end of the hunting season. “Yes, 
girls are scarce in these parts,” he said, “and 
don’t often find traps baited as 
temptingly as this one.” 
The start from the clearing for the timber 
was not attended by the same alacrity and 
free movement.of the joints as on the other 
occasion, the hunter confessed so himself, and 
miies seemed to have stretched themselves to 
inconvenient lengths. A halt to gather 
blueberries and again at noonday to boil the 
kettlé, were, in his judgment, most appropriate 
diversions. Toward the end of what seemed a 
long day, the first camping place was reached, 
and a welcome haven it was to the leg-weary 
plodder from “the States.” 
Weather was a dismal failure in the Prov- 
ince this year. Rain fell throughout the 
spring and summer, and the autumn also; the 
waters were high and the bogs were deep. 
Velvet clung to the horns of the wild animals 
until after the opening of the hunting season, 
and as was subsequently learned, the love- 
making of the*moose was delayed for some 
days beyond the usual time. 
\ecepting the first opportunity to look 
around the neighborhood of this first camp, 
the nearby lake was paddled over for the 
purpose of visiting some grassy ponds be- 
yond, and in the first. of these the hunter’s 
eyes were gladdened by the sight of a bull 
and two cow moose. At a distance of I50 
vards the bull’s horns seemed very attrac- 
tive; the web was good and the spread was 
probably forty-five inches; but would not a 
better one be found during all the days yet 
to be devoted to the hunt? Should*the hunter 
shut out all possibilities on this first day? The 
winning argument was, “If we see a head like 
this the first time we look about us, the 
chances for seeing a larger one within two 
weeks, with the calling season near, at hand, 
good.” The cows, as usual, were the 
we bears 
most 
are 


first to scent danger, and the bull prompt] 
followed them into obscurity. 
Soon after embarking in the canoe for th 
return trip to camp, a cow moose was see 
paddling about the lake, and a spurt was mad 
with the hope of obtaining a photograph oa 






her. To paddle against the wind is hard work 
and the tremendous efforts of the beast t 


reach shore in advance of the canoe prolonge 
the job considerably. When she was finall 
overtaken, it was a question as to whethe 
the pursued or the pursuer puffed the doudei 
She did not seem at all flattered by the de 
mand for her photograph. 
The camp at hand not having yet bee 
stocked with supplies, the frugal fare argue 
strongly and forcibly in favor of promptl 
moving toward the predestined stopping place 
The first day’s journey, deeper into the wood 
and in the direction of the coveted supplie: 
‘led the travelers past several ponds to th 
Right Branch of the Tobique, and in thes 
ponds were several lazy old cows engage 
with efforts to dislodge tormenting flies fro1 
their ears and drown those upon their leg!| 
They were apparently without escort, a 
though occasional coy glances into the wood 
by one of them were suggestive of a cor| 
cealed companion of the opposite sex, 
The next day’s march necessitated in th| 
beginning the bridging of the turbulent RigI| 
Branch, and this was to be accomplished b 
felling trees, the first and second of whic 
were promptly swept away and the third hel 
only long enough to permit a hurried crossing 
To travel over a new logging road woul} 
seem, in the abstract, to be a preferable rout: 
even though more circuitous, to one throug 
the pathless timber; but its inequalities and th| 














































































small sharp moss-covered stumps of unde) 
brush gave the pedestrians—particularly thi! 
older one—so many disagreeable surprise 
that thereafter roads were looked upon wit 
abhorrence and as an objectionable feature | 
advanced civilization. 
Food was found at the journey’s end, and t 
it were added some trout and small salmo| 
from an adjacent stream; but even when con 
fortably filled, the hunter felt rather age 
after his recent activities, and wondered ho 
it were possible for him to have hunted thi 

CALLING 
MOOSE IN THE EARLY MORNING, 
\ 


