The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-07
ROCKY MOUNTAIN
ADVENTURES
The Peri1s of Hunting Moose.
CWiU Sparks in Ainslee'sl


Nearly all the adventure of the region
of the Rocky Mountains comes from the
satisfying of the sporting instinct There
is little lawlessness among the resident
population, and what there is is strongly
curbed by the Canadian mounted police
There is practically no mining. Noun
tain climbing for exploration has prOba-
bly, caused more deaths than anything
else.
Travel through this region in the
winter season. while beSet with hards hips
enough, is still much more agreeable than
in the summer. Hunters and trappers
usually locate in some habitation and use
it a central point from which they
search game, travelling on snow shoes
Even when a long journey is necessary,
the old, experienced trapper seldom
thinks of taking tent with him, but
trusts to luck TO find big, hollow tree
for the night. Such trees are common in
certain sections of the Canadian rockies
They are ali old and have only q thick
outer shell. An old oak, six feet in di-
ameter, affords an admirable place to
large The experienced hunter always
looks for hollow tree with the opening
into it down close to the ground, this
prevents the possibility OF a wild beast
climbing in on. top of HIM. Sometimes the
man finds the hollow tree already occu-
pied by bear or catamOunt, which he
fall is already well advanced there is
generally fight, as hollow trees are hard
10 find in the dark by even the most ex-
Derienced hunters, and in most cases the
man gets the tree and the skin of the
WIG beast, too
when the hunter has completed his
work he builds fire in the snow, not far
from the hole in the tree, cuts piece of
meat from his vanquished foe. and pre-
partake of a meal amid more solemn sur
roundings. The air is stin. and no sound
breaks the silence except the cracking OF
the ice on the sleet-coVered tWigs. Rocks,
canyons ana gOrgeS are buried deep under
the snow. and the light from the camp
fire lights up the scene with a vivid
glare
Crawls into the hollow tree and gets into
MS sleeping bag, lying so that his head
Will be close to the opening. And there
he sleeps as comfortably as if he were
in a bed of a $40 a day hotel in New
York Such an experience is usually an
event to mark an epoch in a mans life,
and yet to the hunter and trapper in the
Canadian rockies it is an everyday oc-
currence-
During the winter the moose and the
wood buffalo are hunted along the east
ern slope OF the Canadian rockies Both
of these animals are still plentiful there,
and are Stalked in much the same manner
as deer. Bat the hunting of the moose
Is more dangerous. and requires all the
nerve man has. The beasts are vicious,
especially after a slight wound They are
hard to kill, and rife ball must reach
vital point to drop the game. So the
hunter, hindered at every step by cumber-
some snowshOes, must get quite near.
not WaVer, and yet he must be rea0y to
run in case the beast should turn on him.
The least miSchance means death. for the
moses front feet are sharp. II has a
trick of rushing at a man and striking an
outward and downward blow that is like
~ to cut him in two Dogs are generally
able to take care of themselves as far as
moose are concerned, but at the critical
moment can do little to help their
master When the moose driven to bay
turns. it always makes for the man,
seeming, by some strange intelligence, to
know who is the real enemy. For all this,
moose hunting is the most exciting sport
TO be. found on the American continent
today, and the man who loves adventure
will get enough on one hunt to last him
until another year Then he will 90 after
more Moose But i may be that he viii
never come back