Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/163

Rh day, but to give them so much for the job, for they will take you round and round in large circles to make out the time, and perhaps be within rifle-shot of the moose all the time. In the spring the chase is more exciting: the moose takes the crust, but is so heavy as to sink at every foot-step, while the hunters follow on snow shoes. Here the sagacity of the Indian is put to the test; and unless well accustomed to the exercise, Mister, who hires him, knocks up, and is unable to follow. If the moose gets away or is killed by the Indian, the pay stops; it is his business not to keep the man up with the moose, but to keep the moose constantly in sight, which he effects by running round and turning the animal. When the gentleman is nearly tired out, the Indian fires at an imaginary fox; the shot misses the fox and accidentally breaks the leg of the moose: the gentleman comes up and takes a few shots at the animal, now as helpless as a tied-up cow.—L.

Note on the Moose in Canada.— "Moose are frequently taken in the Indian-stream territory, a kind of neutral ground on the boundary of this province and New Hampshire, claimed by both governments. Paths are worn by the feet of these animals, leading to the brook, whither they resort to drink: and they are caught by traps laid in these paths. I am told they are almost all dead when found, as they soon kick and worry themselves to death. I saw a stuffed moose at Quebec, but it was not well mounted; if I recollect rightly, it was taller than a horse.

"There is an opinion prevalent among the Indians, that the moose, among the methods of self-preservation with which he seems more acquainted than almost any other animal, has the power of remaining under water for a long time. Two credible Indians, after a long day's absence on a hunt, came in and stated that they had chased a moose into a small pond; that they had seen him go to the middle of it and disappear, and then, choosing positions from which they could see every part of the circumference of the pond, smoked and waited until evening; during all which time they could see no motion of the water, or other indication of the position of the moose.

"At length, being discouraged, they had abandoned all hope of taking him, and returned home. Not long afterwards came a solitary hunter, loaded with meat, who related, that having followed the track of a moose for some distance, he had traced it to the pond before mentioned; but having also discovered the tracks of two men, made at the same time as those of the moose, he concluded they must have killed it. Nevertheless, approaching cautiously to the margin of the pond, he sat down to rest. Presently, he saw the moose rise slowly in the centre of the pond, which was not very deep, and wade towards the shore where he was sitting. When he came sufficiently near, he shot him in the water. The moose is more shy and difficult to take than any other animal. He is more vigilant, and his senses more acute, than those of the buffalo or caribou. He is fleeter than the elk, and more prudent and crafty than the deer. In the most violent storm, when the wind, and the thunder, and the falling timber are making the loudest and most incessant roar, if a man, either with his foot or his hand, breaks the smallest dry limb in the forest, the moose will hear it: and although he