Algernon Blackwood

“ He may run for twenty miles without stopping. He may come to water and swim over to the other shore, or he may dive and double in such a confusing way through the dense tangle that it is hopeless to follow him with any chance of catching up for a shot. The distance between the hoof-marks gives you a good idea of the size of their owner, and the ease with which he takes a striding jump over fallen trees thrills you with the knowledge that you are after no ordinary deer. ”

“ It is easy enough, of course, when the ground is soft and muddy, to see the great hoof-mark of a bull moose, or the more pointed impression of the cow’s pad, but when the earth is hard and the light poor (as often is the case in the dense Canadian forests) , you may search for days and find nothing encouraging. An Indian, or an experienced woodsman, will see a track in a second, where you or I might pass over the ground as untouched and useless. ”

“ But wind and rain are the best aids. Noisy weather is good hunting weather. The roar of the branches, the rattle of the rain, and the constant dripping from the trees combine to drown the sounds of your approach. ”

“ Often have I followed a good strong track for miles, and then suddenly lost it on coming to a stretch of hard earth, whereas the woodsman with me has gone straight ahead without hesitation as though he were following a pathway marked with white stones. It is extraordinary, however, to note how the senses improve after a few weeks in the woods, and how much keener the sight gets, and the power of hearing. Men who live entirely in cities are always astonished at the powers of vision and hearing of the backwoodsman ”

“ Presently, you see a spot where the hoof marks become a little confused and pointing in all directions, and you know that he has scented danger, and has paused to listen, turning his body to catch the wind, and ploughing up the ground as he turns. After that the length of the stride gets bigger and bigger, and you know he is on the run. He has got wind of you, either by scent or hearing, and is off at that long, loping gallop which carries him through the woods at a tremendous pace. ”

“ Their ears are sharper than those of a deer, and their scent keener than that of almost any creature in the woods. If a twig snaps beneath your moccasin, or your coat brushes noisily against a branch, especially in damp weather, when noises are sharper, they will put another mile or two to their credit before you have gone a hundred yards.
The usual way of hunting moose is to find a fresh track⁠—and then follow it. To find a track at all is a matter of some training. ”

“ At first, after you strike a fresh moose track and follow it, the stride is fairly regular, and you can see how the creature has ambled along in a leisurely fashion, nibbling the hemlock branches off the ground, or going to one side or the other to pull down some maple sapling and eat the juicy top leaves. ”

“ Deer, by the way, it is interesting to note, are not so plentiful as the hunter might expect in these regions; and the man who goes into camp with light provisions, relying upon venison for his meat supply, may find more trouble in keeping his larder filled than he likes. The wolves keep their ranks thin. No wolf can catch a deer in the woods, if the conditions of the chase be equal; but in the winter, ferocious with long fasting, wolves chase the deer on the ice of the frozen lakes and rivers, and soon get their teeth into the tender flanks. ”

“ The silence of these woods, for one thing, is extraordinarily deep. I have often sat at my tent door when the others have already rolled up and gone to sleep in their blankets, and listened intently in order to train my ears to catch the lightest sound. ”

“ It is upon their unrivalled powers of smell that these gigantic deer depend chiefly for their safety. Nature has provided them with a proboscis of enormous proportions, as you may see by going to any natural history museum, and in the wide nostrils gaping at the end of that expansive muzzle the faintest odour is quickly registered, and the owners are off at top speed in less than a second. ”

“ With their heads lowered, and in spite of the bull’s spreading horns, they charge through the woods at full tilt, crashing through the densest underbrush as if it were merely hay, and smashing young tree stems as if they were the stalks of sunflowers. ”

“ On all sides you can see rotten logs torn open by the bears in their search for ants and honey, and the deep trail leading up to the log and away from it again; but the old bear himself is probably miles away by the time you come upon the scene, covering the ground in that rolling, tumbling gait of his that carries him along at incredible speed. ”

“ It is curious, too, how a man who loves the woods and dwells in them soon learns to imitate the habits of the animals. He learns, for one thing, to move silently. When hunting moose this is of great value, and the man who can tread on a twig with out making it snap has a great advantage over the clumsy fellow who goes along snapping and cracking at every step. ”

“ Just as I was dozing off one night, after a hard day’s hunting, I heard voices in the tent next to me.
“There’s that animal again,” said the lady’s voice, speaking to her sleepy husband. “You really must get up and see what it is. I believe it’s a wolf.” ”

“ It is a vast and lonely region in Northern Canada where the moose roams and lives, and the huge size of this monstrous creature⁠—it is the largest of the whole deer family⁠—makes hunting it a very exciting business. Accustomed to dwell all its life in the deepest recesses of primæval forest, the powers of sight in the moose are not highly developed. ”

“ In these months they often wade into the cool lakes and ponds, and stand up to their necks in water, where the Indians, to their shame, used to slaughter them without mercy. They offer a large target, and, though splendid swimmers, they cannot get away from the bullet in time. These same Indians always say that the bear is the shyest animal of the woods. Bruin certainly is a very wary and shy beast; but the moose, in my opinion, comes in an uncommonly close second. ”

“ The front legs of moose are much longer than the hind ones, and to drink, if the bank be steep, or to crop the sweet shoots of the wild rice, they are obliged to kneel. Their food, however, consists chiefly of the ground hemlock, whose low bushes cover the ground in the neighbourhood of the big hemlock-trees, and can be easily got at in winter by scraping away the surface snow ”

“ The deep silence of the forest at night is more to be wondered at when you reflect that everything alive in the woods travels at night and rests by day. The woods “travel” in the darkness, to use the hunters’ term, and the animals prowl and hunt. ”

“ They get over vast distances, moving with great speed, and the enormous territory at their disposal, of course, makes difficult hunting. You must have iron muscles, and be tireless. A fresh moose track⁠—that is, one with no water or cobwebs in it⁠—may be followed for fifty miles, the creature always keeping half a dozen miles ahead of the hunter. ”