Waterbury Democrat., 1900-11-03
ROCKY MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE
perils of HuntinE Moose in the Ca nndian Mountains in
 the winter. s4s@

Nearly all the adventure of the re- zion of the Rocky mountains comes from the satisfying of the sporting in stinct. i, There is little p 1awlsxsness among the resident population and what there h is strongly eurbed by the Canadian mounted police. There is practically no mining. Mountain climbing for exploration has probably caused more deaths than anything else, writes Will Sparks, in Ainslee's.
 Travel through this region in the winter season, while beset with hard ships enough, is still much more agreeable than in the summer. Hunt CTS and trappers usually locate in some habitation and use it as cen tral point from which they searcE game, travelling on snow shoes. Even when long journey is necessary, the old, experienced trapper seldom thinks of taking a tent with him, but trusts to luck to find big, hollow tree fo1 the night. Such trees are commo' in certain sections of the Canadian Rockies. They are all old and have only thick outer she'll An old oak, six feet in diameter, affords an admi rable place to bunk, provided tn too D enced hunter always looks for a hol low tree with the opening into il down close to the ground, as it pre- vents the possibility of wild beast climbing in on top of him. Sometime the man finds the hollow tree already occupied by bear or a catamount which he must fight or hunt another tree. If nightfall is already we'll ad- vanced there is generally a fight, as hollow trees are hard to find in tn. dark by even the most experienced | hunters, and in most cases the ma. | gets the tree and the skin of the wilc | beast, too.
 When the hunter has completed his | work he builds a fire in the snow not far from the hole in the tree | cuts piece of meat from his van 1uished foe, and prepares his supper And never does man partake of meal amid more solemn sIro4 indings. The air is still, and no soura breaks the silence except the cracking of the ice on the sleet-covered twigs. Rocks canyons and gorges are buried deeI under the snow, and the light from the camp fire lights up the scene witt a vivid glare.
 His evening meal finished, the hunt CT crawls into the hollow tree anG gets into his sleeping bag, lying SC that his head will be close to tht opening. And there he sleeps as com fortably as if he were in bed of { $1o-a-day hotel in New York. Suc1 an experience is usually an event tt mark an epoch in a mans life, anc yet to the hunter and trapper in thu Canadian Rockies it is an everyday occurrence.
 During the winter the moose ant the wood buffalo are hunted along th eastern slope of the Canadian Roy k ies. Both of these animals are st, plentiful there, and are stalked i much the same manner as deer Bu the hunting of the moose is more dan gerous, and requires all the nerve man has. The beasts are vicious, es pecially after Q slight wound. The. | are hard to kill, and rifle ball mus reach vital point to drop the game So the hunter, hindered at every stel by cumbersome snowshoes, must ge quite near. When the time comes t shoot he must not waver, and yet h must be ready to run in case the beas should turn on him. The least mis chance means death, for the moose front feet are sharp. It has a tric. of rushing at a man and striking a outward and downward blow that likely to cut him in two. Dogs ar generally able to take care of them | selves as far as moose are concerned but at the critical moment can d little to help their masters. When th moose, driven to bay, turns, it alway makes for the man, seeming, by som strange intelligence, to know who the real enemy. For all this, moose hdnting is the most exciting sport t be found on the American continen to-day, and the man who loves adver ture will get enough on one hunt t last him until another year. Then h will go after more moose. But it ma be that he will never come back. EYTPA HHADGE Enp EREnn