Moose hunting

“ It must always be borne in mind that to kill a moose—especially in a country where they have been hunted for generations by the Indians—by the thoroughly sportsmanlike method of following the trail of one until you finally get a shot at it and kill it, is a totally different thing from killing the same moose either by calling him at night in the autumn or by paddling on him in a canoe in the summer. In fact, of all the difficult things I have ever undertaken in the way of sport, I regard this as the most difficult ”

“ I did not realize what fearful risks we might be running until I saw that poor hunted moose. I did not know moose ever came so near to houses before; I thought they kept entirely to the wild lands.”
“They do usually, but pressed by winter and deep snow they will come right into settled places,” replied Sophy, who was plainly getting drowsy. “I have known them come round the houses at The Corner, and they have even helped themselves to Father’s haystacks when the weather has been very severe.”
“I cannot think what men are made of. I should hate to go moose-hunting!” cried Pam with a shiver. ”

“ It is their keen sense of hearing and smell that are to be guarded against, for as a rule, when the animal can see the hunter, he can also see the moose, and his capture becomes simply a question of marksmanship. It is certainly a unique sport and has few successful aspirants.
Of the two, still hunting is usually the more successful and the greater number of moose are secured in that way. In the late fall, the coming of the first snow doubles one's chances of success as every step of the animal is shown. ”

“ The captain thought it wise to tarry in our present camp several days, to kill deer and dry the venison, in order that we might have a supply of meat while engaged in moose-hunting, independent of that which we might be able to kill during this period.
We had unanimously agreed that it was inexpedient to take dogs with us on the moose-chase. In this particular our experience fully confirmed the wisdom of our conclusion. The moose cannot be driven to water by deer-hounds, or any other species of dog with which I am familiar ”

“ But this hunting of the moose merely for the satisfaction of killing him,—not even for the sake of his hide,—without making any extraordinary exertion or running any risk yourself, is too much like going out by night to some wood-side pasture and shooting your neighbor's horses. These are God's own horses, poor, timid creatures, that will run fast enough as soon as they smell you, though they are nine feet high. Joe told us of some hunters who a year or two before had shot down several oxen by night, somewhere in the Maine woods, mistaking them for moose. ”

“ Not until then had occurred to me what is well known to many who still-hunt moose, namely, that before lying down they generally make a long loop to the leeward, returning close to their trail, so that they can readily get the wind of anyone following upon it long before he reaches them, when, of course, they quietly get up and sneak away. ”

“ But the grand object of the Canadian chase is the enormous moose-deer, which grows to the height of seven feet and upwards, and is sometimes fierce and dangerous. In the month of February, our author and a military friend started on a moose-hunting expedition, which lasted six days, and ended in the slaughter of two fine specimens. ”

“ As the last one struck he went down, the shot breaking his shoulder blade—another victim of the 30-30.
The experience of a young New Yorker will serve to exemplify both the uncertainty of moose calling and the manner in which it is prosecuted. He was hunting in the Bear River woods, accompanied by one of the most expert guides of that section. Two nights of calling proved fruitless. The sportsman frankly told his guide he had no faith in it, and that he did not believe a moose would come to the call of a man. ”

“ It is through nose and ears that this cunning brain is duly prompted to escape danger.
No man save the Indian, or the half-Indian, can hunt the moose with chance of success.
I am aware that a host of Englishmen and Canadians will exclaim against this, but nevertheless it is perfectly true. Hunting the moose in summer and winter is one thing—killing him in a208 snow-yard, or running him down in deep snow is another. The two methods are as widely different as killing a salmon which another man has hooked for you is different from rising, hooking, playing, and gaffing one yourself. ”

“ The first and fairest is still-hunting ’em in the woods, which means following their signs, and getting a shot in any way you can, if you can. But that’s a stiff ‘if’ to a hunter. Nine times out o’ ten a moose will baffle him and get off unhurt, even when a man has tracked him for days, camping on his trail o’ nights. The snapping of a twig not the size of my little finger, or one tramping step, and the moose’ll take warning. He’ll light out o’ the way as silently as a red man in moccasins, and the hunter won’t even know he’s gone. ”

“ The fatigue and countless obstacles to be met with are such that comparatively few amateur sportsmen attempt it. [Pg 26] More frequently the animal is driven to the water by the guides and woodsmen, or attracted to such localities by calling.
In Northern Maine and in the Canadian Provinces, the moose is often hunted during early winter by pursuing him on snow-shoes. Jacking is often effectively followed in mid-summer, along the lakes and rivers. This method is considered unsportsmanlike by those who possess the requisite skill and endurance to adopt the style of still hunting. ”

“ Still-hunting or tracking—spooring, as it would be called in South Africa—is another and extremely fatiguing method; while yet another mode of hunting is that practised by Indian and half-breed hunters in winter, when, the sportsman being mounted on snow-shoes, the moose is followed, run into and shot in deep snow. In this sport the hunter has much the better of it. The moose, with its vast weight and sharp hoofs, plunges through the frozen snow-crust, over which the snow-shoes carry the biped easily enough, and, becoming presently exhausted, is shot without much difficulty. ”

“ Various reasons are given for the diminishing number of caribou and the increase of moose, but I do not undertake to explain the cause of the change. There are certainly quite a number of moose in the country, and if one is not too eager to shoot the first chance he gets, and will wait till he sees a good head, a hunt of several weeks ought to secure satisfactory results. The law allows a sportsman only one moose, and that fact should make him careful about bagging anything which comes in sight. ”

“ They will even attack and master that formidable fighter the moose, springing at it from an ambush as it passes—for a bull moose would surely be an overmatch for one of them if fronted fairly in the open. An old hunter, whom I could trust, told me that he had seen in the snow in early spring the place where a bear had sprung at two moose, which were trotting together ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Thus he armed me against the cunning of savage beasts by teaching me how to outwit them.
“In hunting,” he would resume, “you will be guided by the habits of the animal you seek. Remember that a moose stays in swampy or low land or between high mountains near a spring or lake, for thirty to sixty days at a time. Most large game moves about continually, except the doe in the spring; it is then a very easy matter to find her with the fawn. Conceal yourself in a convenient place as soon as you observe any signs of the presence of either, and then call with your birchen doe-caller. ”

“ 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. ”

“ By trampling down a restricted area of ground (moose-yard) and browsing on the edge of this, the moose is able to protect itself efficiently against the attacks of wolves. The moose has a wide range in Canada, extending from the Arctic Ocean and British Columbia to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; and it is found also in Maine. It feeds largely on the shoots of trees or shrubs, such as the willow and maple, and on bark, &c. In Sweden its destruction is illegal, and in Norway there are many restrictions upon the hunting of it. ”

“ Moose frequently come down to the water, of which they are very fond, and in which they bathe and wallow. Caribou are less apt to frequent such spots. Calling is a favorite method of bringing moose within range, but great care has to be exercised, for a single false note and your noble quarry, instead of accepting an invitation to a funeral, which he is to grace, will retire to a place of safety. ”

“ He invited the hunter to spend a few days in his cabin, an invitation which the man thankfully accepted. Though each morning found him abroad, armed and eager, he caught no further glimpse of the big moose.
Meanwhile, the wilderness was becoming an uncomfortable place for the hunter. The myriad swarms of insects gave him no peace by day or night, while the big moose was spending long peaceful hours far away at the edge of a tiny, wood-girt lake. During the day the moose dozed on a cool mud bed in the shallows, his body submerged save for the tip of his nose. ”

“ The pair went crashing onward, making their way toward the distant waterways and marshes. Long before you heard the crashing of the underbrush you knew, if you were experienced in wood-lore, that moose were on the trail, because the moose when it travels has a way of striking its hoofs together with a sharp, clicking sound like the striking of castanets, and the sharp sound heralds their coming. But for all the moose is himself noisy, he is perhaps the very keenest one in the forest to detect the approach of an intruder, for he readily takes alarm at the mere cracking of a twig. ”

“ Sometimes the ear of the hunter is assailed by a tremendous clatter from some distant swamp or burned wood. It is the moose, defiantly sweeping the forest of pines right and left among the brittle branches of the ram pikes, as the scaled pines hardened by fire are locally termed. When, however, the moose wishes to beat a retreat in silence, his suspicions being aroused, he effects the process with marvellous stealth. Not a branch is heard to snap, and the horns are so carefully carried through the densest thickets, that a rabbit would make as much noise when alarmed. ”

“ In the most violent storm, when the wind and the thunder and the falling timber are making the loudest and the most incessant roar, if the hunter even with his foot or his hand breaks the smallest dry twig in the forest, the moose will hear it; and though it does not always run, it ceases eating, and bends its attention to all sounds. If in the course of an hour the hunter neither moves nor makes the least noise, the moose may possibly again begin to feed, but does not forget what he has heard, and for many hours afterwards is more vigilant even than before. ”

“ Few half-breeds, and not every Indian, is expert enough to track and kill a moose under ordinary circumstances, and it is a saying amongst them that a man may follow moose all his life, and never even catch sight of one. Frequenting the thickest forests, where he can only be seen when close at hand, his sense of hearing is so acute that the snapping of the smallest twig or the crackling of a dry leaf is sufficient to give him warning. A windy day offers the best chance of approaching him, when the noises of the woods drown the sound of the hunter’s stealthy footsteps. ”

“ They won’t always fight either, even if they’re wounded, when they can get a chance to bolt. But a moose, if he has to die, will be sure to die game, with his face to his enemy; and so will every wild animal that I know. I’ve even seen a shot partridge flutter up its feathers like a game-cock at the fellow who dropped it. ”

“ Comparatively few are killed annually in the United States, and those mostly within the limits of Northern Maine and the States of the far Northwest, where the pernicious activity of the professional hunters and self-styled sportsmen, who kill the large beasts during the prevalance of deep snows, will, if not checked, bring the moose into the list of extinct species of American game before the close of another decade. ”

“ To hunt the moose requires years of study. Here is the little game which his instinct teaches him. When the early morning has come, he begins to think of lying down for the day. He has been feeding on the grey and golden willow-tops as he walked leisurely along. His track is marked in the snow or soft clay; he carefully retraces his footsteps, and, breaking off suddenly to the leeward side, lies down a gunshot from his feeding-track. He knows he must get the wind of any one following his trail. ”