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CROOKED DEADWATER MOOSE Big Bull Found and Photographed in Rocky Bend Water Interesting Story of a Canadian Expedition After an Old Acquaintance The train groaned and croaked around the bends of thn St John Itlver Tim brakenuin came in slamming himWoodstock the door behind him Woodstock next Ten minutes for lunch Wood stork storkW W stretched our tjrod legs and stood welromLg any journeyAs break in the monotony of th tirosome journey As I started down the ear steps on my rush for grub I paused for then on the platform stood Dave Ogilvy Worse than that Davo Ogilvy with a baleful light in his ye as it rested on inc The pause was only momentary for the crowd pushed me along toward Dave Furtively looking arond for a hole to crawl into in case he proved bellig ¬ erent I grabbed his hand and pumped it tlif while I told him how dash blanked glad I was to see him gloomilyWell again Dave surveyed me gloomily Well go get yonr lunch lie said Ill soe you on the train Ive just been rending tlis Crooked Bull story of yours and I want to tell ynu right now I ducked and ran for the lunch counter counterAll All the rest of the way ip the valley I side ¬ stepped Dave and his Crooked Bull Moose I heard him growling to Adam Moore And that pic ¬ ture of me hes got in there When I told him on my word of honor there wiis a tame bull on the Crooked Deadwatcr Did I ever tell you about the time Mr Kalm and I Adam yawned and rose Yes Several times he said and departed while Dave started to hunt me again againAt At Gulquacthat night he had for the time being forgotten this grievance someone having played a practical joke on him which be blamed on mt And by the time we got started into the woods like the dog he had more than one flea figuratively of course to bother him himThis This is in no sense a story of a hunting trip But the rest of them have growled so much about Bobs Marathon hunt as they termed it that I merely take this occasion to set myself right The year before I had started out to make a circuit tour of the Ogilvy hunting section but had not com ¬ pleted it Tills year I was determined to go through or bust and I did go through that is not bust Ill leave it to any hunter if one hundred and twenty miles on foot in two weeks with packs ranging from sixty to a hundred pounds each tjn camps in fourteen days is going it too fast I main tain it keeps you from getting stiff between jaunts and leaves you Ipts of opportunity for hunting As evidence I have merely to mention that not a day passed without Jack McKellhr iny guide and I bag ¬ ging game cribbage or auction fortyfive Whie penciled on a fresh chiseled surface in one of these camps nlong with1 the haughty records of numerous hunters with their fifty and sixty inch bull moose is the partnerJ proud inscription of my hunting partner J W Dougless Chicago ChicagoOne One bull moose in the jelly jar Sorend one half inch D Ogilvy Guide GuideGeorge George Raymond our cook some cook too said hed no sooner get the spiders swept out ol one camp and several big boulders planted in my bed than wed run for the next camp and hed have to do it all over again Every time we came to a log across the trail he and Dave would want to stop and tackle us at cribbage As for Dave the only reason he kicks is because the two jars of highbush cranberry jam which lie was taking along for venison dressing mysteriously disappeared and he blamed it onto me never got tired of talking about a man whod stop on a fourteen mile portage darkness coming on and spread this choice relish on bread for a lunch However that may be I can assure Dave it was worth stopping for even if I did tumble five times in the next mile in the pitch darkness darknessAs As we neared the little southwest Miramichi Dav brought up the Crooked Bull topic again againBy By George Id show him to you and make you eat your jvorrts if he hadnt been killed last fall fallYes Yes I answered I heard that Henry Ogilvy was the guilty one How about it itWell Well said Dave Ill not commit myself one way or the other But T guoss you can hunt the Crooked Deadwater all right this year for poor old Billy is gone WANDERING AFTER BIG MOOSE MOOSEHunt Hunt it we did Jack an3 L Our favorite hunting ground now that the chance of shooting a tame moose was gone we spent three days there most of the time alone Up and down we roamed in the old dugout calling at dusk and at dawn Jacks artful calling had brought out five good bulls forty to fifty inches into plain sight all which easy shots were passed up as we were after sixty inches or nothing i might say in passing we finished with nothing Came the day when Dave and George and Douglass were due to arrive at the Deadwater We had left them behind at Southwest Lake and when we readied the foot of the Dehdwater after a long tramp we had found the dugout gone at the heail as we discovered later and had had to lug our heavy packs two miles farther over the most killing going I ever traveled in New Brunswick and thats going some Before starting around on foot I had left a feeling message for the others Written on an old box with charred wood in letters a foot high and planted in the middle of the trail Jt ran ranWALK WALKDAMYU DAMYU WALK WALK Now oil the day they were due we slid down stream in the dugout pulled it up out of sight and hid in the buslies above the box Shortly there came the crack of a rifle jdown stream ntl s time later the three filed out into sight their already heavy packs augmented by a buck Douglass had just shot shotWhen When Dave saw the notice he stopped dead his fane a study as he thought of that awful walk around the Deadwater They lit their pipes and sat down to talk it over Stealing around through the brush we came down upon them themYes Yes the old canoe was clean gone We had hud an awful time getting our packs around and had walked down to help them George themGeorge spat derisively Any time Theyre damd liars Dave theyve got Mie dugout hid hidAt At that we ciiyed and pulled it out outWith With the morning came Uncle Henry Braith waite dean of New Brunswick guides With him came a tote team tired put from two days steady hauling froni the settlements to the east over im ¬ possible ruts once many years iigo totc roud t swearing driver and a discouraged packer Also a sled loaded with boxes and barrel hams and aimed goods cheese and bottled goods and more bottled goods the advance guard of a party of Pittsburgh sports strung out In various stages of exhaustion one and two days Journey in the rear Wo looked at our packs of grub dwindling from ten days steady drain and sighed enviously enviouslyDave Dave decided to leave at noon with George and Douglass while Jack and I stayed on for one moic nights and mornings calling before joining them at Indian Lake LakeBIG BIG FELLOW APPEARS AT LAST LASTNext Next day we were up at dawn paddling down Jhe Deadwater to the Jaws But this morning Jacks seductive notes through the old birch bark brought no response Ami with the sun swinging lpk We started reluctantly back to late breakfast and to packing up Just below the camp lies what we christened Rocky Bend and as we pushed hirt scraped the old dugout through and over the lit of the bouUlers and around the corner there a hundred feet ahead of us stood a big bull moo knee deep in water His head came up with i jerk Too small I whispered back to Jack as I released the rifle I had started to pick up Yes upYes about fortyfive to fifty inches he re ¬ plied pliedThen Then as I drew my camera from my pocket he started to slowly and quietly paddle me up toward the bull I made the first exposure at twenty five feet the second at fifteen the third and Jast on the roll at ten feet Then as Jack still edged me up to the moose I turned and addressed several pointed remarks to him winding up by assuring him I was QUITE CLOSE ENOUGH Jtck snorted while the bull stood calmly looking us over overA A frantic search of my pockets revealed no mare film The camp landing wan a hundred yards be ¬ yond We paddled up rapidly not daring to hope the moose would wait for us Being the faster ruii niT Tatk sprinted up to camp dived into my pnrk and brought back a mediciup kit Whereupon I li some cussing and sprinting of my own and came back with two more rolls Out around the point v paddicd and there the bull stood farther down stream but not frightened The next fifteen min ¬ utes gave us the experience of a lifetime We fa lowed that bull up as he fed taking pictures at t ii feet one at six feet He answered our grunting swinging Jiis head obligingly to face the lens At times exasperated by our dogging he would turn on us sharply while we would hurriedly back water The two rolls were used up upThatll Thatll do Jack 1 said Ive got fiften exposures No use being a hog Lets beat it itAs As we turned the canoe toward camp the bull did not even deign to lift his head from his feeding We feedingWe found Uncle Henry at the camp and tried to persuade him to go look at the bull But Uncle Henry in his fifty odd years trapping in these woods has seen so much game that one moose more or less means nothing in his young life and he refused refusedHave Have got to get this stove set up he said How many points has he heSeventeen Seventeen Jack repuied Ten on the riglt seven on the left and about firtyeight inch spread spreadThen Then it aint Billy said Uncle Henry Last time pointsThen I saw Billy lie had twentytwo points Then how do you account for his letting us so close I asked askedI I dont try to account for any bulls fool actions in the rutting season replied Uncle Henry nor a photographers either he muttered Lucky yoa wasnt killed killedWe We lunched packed and swung our packs to our shoulders Uncle Henrys eyes twinkled as he saw me shake my load into place Whats she weigh he asked Well it did weigh seventy pounds when I started Then Dave got a fifteen pound boulder into it once when I stopped to rest About the middle of this afternoon shell weigli two hundred I answered answeredGosh Gosh said Uncle Henry regretfully and 1 cant get any of my sports to carry even their rifles riflesSPOET SPOET NEGLECTED FOB CRIBBAGE CRIBBAGEWe We reached Indian Lake toward evening and there astride a log at the door of the cnirip sat Dave and Douglass at the everlasting cribbage gam Rifles stood neglected in the corner of the cabin the stove was cold no grub in sight and George was hopping around impatiently awaiting his tiin to play the winner I wouldnt go so far as to siy they had been playing there all day nor do I like to mention the big bull moose which stood half hJil in the bushes peering over their shoulders at the game the only firearm jn sight being a shovel Int there are some fellows who prefer cribbage to any other game even live liveDave Dave I said walking up and dumping my three apologizeFifteen hundred pound pack I want to apologize Fifteen two said Dave mechanically reaching for the peg pegI louderDave I said I wanted to apologize I repeated louder Dave came to life You ought to What about he said About Billy I replied Hes still there aliJ and kicking And I told them about our etl perience Uncle Henry says it cant be Billy I concluded that Billy had twentytwo ppinfl while this one had seventeen and that a moosH head never goes back But with all due respect Uncle Henry youll never convince me it wasifl Billy himself fl flSure Sure it was said Dave enthusiastically yoH description fits to a T Did I ever tell yor m the time Kahn and I You did I interrupted hurriedly You did i number of times timesWell Well wont Henry Ogilvy be tickled to leai he didnt cause Billys death Now confound you you not only doubted my word but you even did it in print Youll have to apologize the same way Make me out a liar will yon and Dave exulted exultedWell Well wold man I said if these pictures turn out good Ill send them to Outers BookRecreation with a story storyAnd And youll apologize for doubting my word Dave insisted insistedWecll Wecll I hedged about Billy yes Ill write an apology apologyAnd And tliis is it R A Worstall in Outers Book
