STRANGE ADVENTURE

Evening Star, Issue 19381, 15 October 1926, Page 8

STRANGE ADVENTURE

LASSOOING A BULL MOOSE. One of the strangest adventures ever recorded even in tire wild lands of British Columbia comes from the remote Horsefly Lake country of the Cariboo district (writes the Vancouver correspondent of ‘The Times'). Victor ifurrer, a cowboy, was on his way to his ranch from a hamlet known as Lone Butte. The trail lay many leagues through country inhabited only by big game, the most numerous of which arc moose. The cowboy -was following a narrow trail through jackpine thicket, when suddenly a bull moose appeared, facing him square in the middle of the trail. There w r as no possibility of turning back or out of the trail. Being unarmed, his hand instinctively went to the rawhide lariat tied to his saddle, and in a moment ho had the huge moose securely lassooed by the horns. Then began a strange battle. The moose weighed not less than 1,5001 b; the horse not more than I,ooolb. The end of the lariat was hound fast to the horn of the saddle, and the latter was cinched firmly about the horse. The moose, terrified as much as the horse and his rider, crashed into the thick forest, dragging the horse and rider after him at breakneck speed, for, in spite of his huge horns, no animal is fleeter in its native forest than the moose. Small limbs of trees were snapped like matchwood in the rush, and then, angered by its inability to shako itself free, the moose turned suddenly and pursued the horse and rider, who both narrowly escaped the horns as the animal plunged at them. Again the moose turned, and fled from his assailants. The cowboy, knowing that the battle would soon end in favor of the moose unless he could break free, attempted to cut the lariat with his knife, but a sudden jerk on the line shook the knife from his hand. Once again, in frenzy, the moose turned, and the rider, with great presence of mind, took a few swift turns round a bunch of jackpines, entangling the huge beast so that it could do no harm. Dismounting, he cut the .rope and made it fast; then he rode to the nearest ranchhouse, and obtained a rifle, with which he returned and shot the moose.