The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-16 00:00:00

AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVER

degree, by the desire to dreumvent and slay one
solitary class of animals, The capture of moose
deer, to this enthusiasts Nimrod appears to be
the great and leading buiness of life, the habits
of the animal, interestig no doubt to a great
extent, and faithfully deMeated by him in many
respects, are' still viewed ;o much with an eye to
his favourite pastime, El to lose much of their
intrinsic value. It has iften been said that an
enthusiast is only fit coapany for a brother de-
votee ; and this work, -,wo goodly volumes in
extent, goes far to provethe truth of the maxim.
A specimen of the book vfll make readily apparent
what we mean. Take fa example his

REMARKS ON HUNTES3 THE BULL-MOOSE.
There are five methods by vhich moose may be hunted
or killed in Nova Scotia, vz., creeping on them in the
fall and winter, calling the Ind-moose in the fall, running
them down on snow-shoes in February and March, bring-
ing to bay with dogs, and naring. The first three are
orthodox ; the last two pracices arrant poaching. The
fall is the most enjoyable tine for hunting the moose.
The bull is, at this season, inhis full vigour, and is truly
a noble animal to behold. Aorned with massive antlers,
and evincing a roaming, wild, and sometimes fierce dispo-
sition, there is more excitenent attendant on shooting a
bull-moose in the fall than a any other time of the year.
The delicious days and mild nights, particularly during
the Indian summer, are inch preferable to the cold
variable weather of the wirer. In the fall, too, addi-
tional sport may be obtained a night, and sometimes even
during the day, by calling he bull-moose. Most of the
Indians, who make it their business to accompany the
sportsman into the woods, are good hands at calling.
The moose " call " is a trunpet, made by rolling a sheet
of birch-bark into a cone. 10 material has been found
to equal birch-bark for this purpose. Metal will not
answer, producing a sound ho shrill and ringing. The
Indian commences to call at sun-down, ceasing when it
becomes dark till moon-rise; as a moose coming up,
when there was not sufficient light to see along the bar-
rels, would almost certain}, escape. The very best
time to call is towards miming—for an hour before
dawn, and for a short time afer daybreak. At this time,
moose appear to he less ca;tious, and more eager to
answer the call than they aE in the early part of the
night. In calling, the Indin and sportsman conceal
themsives behind a rock, ore clump of dwarf evergreens,
on the edge of a barren, the Indian standing on the top
of a rock, or sometimes clinbing a tree, so as to give
the sound of his call every alvantage for diffusing itself
through the surrounding f(rest. When an answer is
obtained, and the moose appears to be bent on coming up,
the Indian either recedes, or sends the sportsman some
hundred yards or so in advarce ; or, should the animal
hesitate on arriving in the neighbourhood of the caller,
the Indian has a better shame of allaying the animal's
suspicions, by the apparent tistance of the cow. The
moose, hearing the call at a treater distance than he had
expected, again advances, and at a few paces, probably
receives the fire of the sportsnan. Nothing can be more
productive of feelings of excitement than sitting, wrapped
in blankets, on the edge of a forest-girt plain, the moon
peering through mists of gertly-falling dew, and faintly
illuminating the wild scene, now flashing on the white
surface of a granite boulder, and then sparkling in the
water of the swamp, and on the bedewed mounds of the
moss, and clumps of ground lairels ; nothing can be more
exciting, when the wild notes of the Indian's call, rending
the calm air, have dispersed over the echoing forest, than
the succeeding moments of listening for an answer. You
scarcely believed your ears tohave been capable of such
exertion, if so it may he terned. And then, when, far
away from over the hills, and through the dense fir-forests,
comes the booming answer ()F. a bull-moose ; when you
hear the distant crashing of branches, and the rattling of
the massive antlers against thetrees ; and when, at length
the monarch of the Americar forest emerges from the
woods, and stands snorting and bellowing on the open
barren, his proportions looming gigantic through the hazy
atmosphere—then does the Mood course through your
veins as it never did before ; and, scarcely knowing what
is about to happen, you grasp the ready rifle, and crouch
in the protecting bullies. It is hard to take precise aim by

moonlight. Unless the bead on the barrel be of polished
silver, it is advisable to chalk the end of the gun. Some
hunters draw a line with a piece of chalk from the bead to
the eye. However, in calling, one has seldom occasion
for a long shot : indeed, I have heard of the hair of a
moose's coat having been singed by the flash, so close has
he advanced to the ambush.

As a competitor in the particular walk of sport-
ing literature, our author comes somewhat late
into the field ; and his adventures are of a less
piquant order than those which in a time of pro-
found peace gave interest and popularity to the
stirring narrative of Gordon Cumming, the Celtic
" lion-slayer." They are also in many respects
unequal to the sporting adventures given to the
world by different individuals, whose fancies have
led them to seek " the bubble reputation" in the
rifle-flash ; but independent of this the book is
full of matter interesting for study to all who
sincerely admire nature in the serenity of her
simple moods.

Constantine; or, the Last Days of an Empire.
By Captain Spencer, author of " Travels in
Circassia," &c. &c. London :
_Sampson Low,

and Son.

The two handsome volumes before us, we are
told by their author, are intended to convey his-
toric knowledge in the form of romantic story,
rather than in what he calls " dry historical de-
tails." In adopting this course, he exercised a
perfectly legitimate right of choice ; and, although
many may doubt whether the sublime truths of
history, and more especially those connected with
the overthrow of the Christian sway, and the
overclouding of science and civilisation in the
conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, are
properly characterised by the name of " dry his-
torical details," having made his election, it is
our business to look on the work as he has given
it. Against an author who can quote the autho-
ritative precedents of Shakspeare and Scott, in
the choice of rendering history subservient to
romance, without materially diminishing its dig-
nity or greatly impairing its fidelity, the task of
citing Gibbon as a countervailing model would be
indeed a futile one ; and where, as in the present
instance, he can say from experience and with
truth, "It is likewise particularly well adapted
for describing the scenes of eastern life—of coun-
tries where tradition is the substitute for history
—where the song of the bard and the tale of the
story-teller too often form the only materials from
which he can construct his narrative," the at-
tempt would be as unprofitable as it would prove
irksome. The tale laid before us in the work of
Captain Spencer is full of wild adventure, and
highly characteristic of that country and people,
where

-wild as the accents of lovers' farewell
Are the hearts which they bear and the tales which they
tell.

The time selected for the opening of the story
is that stormy period in the history of the Eastern
Empire which immediately succeeded the death of
John Paleologus, when the throne of the Caesars
was in the first instance contended for as the prize
of civil war between the brothers Thomas and
Demetrius, which ended in the elevation to the
imperial purple of Constantine Paleologus, prince
of the Morea. This important event, however,
it will be remembered by all, was not brought