230 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



northwest, moose are retiring toward the north before the advance of civilization, 

 and are everywliere occupying new country. 



Wary and keen, with his great muscular strength and hardihood, the moose is 

 pitting his acute senses against the encroaching rifleman in the struggle for survival. 

 His habits are being constantly modified, and it is fair to believe that this superb 

 member of the deer family will continue to be an inhabitant of the forest long after 

 most other members of the deer family have disappeared. 



The moose of Maine and the maritime provinces occupy a relatively small area, 

 surrounded on all sides by settlements, which prevent the animals from leaving the 

 country when civilization encroaches. In this district their habits have been greatly 

 modified. They do not show the same fear of the sound of rifle, or the smell of fire, 

 or even the scent of human footsteps as in the wilder portions of the country. In 

 consequence of this change of habit, it is difficult for a hunter, whose experience is 

 limited to Maine or the maritime provinces, to appreciate how very shy and wary a 

 moose can be.- 



In the upper Ottawa country, when tney first began to be iiunted by sportsmen, 

 tlie writer remembers alighting from his canoe on the bank of a small stream, and 

 walking around a marsh a few acres in extent to look at the moose tracks. Fresh 

 signs, made that morning, were everywhere in evidence, and it had apparently been a 

 favorite resort all summer. Snow fell that night and remained continuously on the 

 ground for two weeks, when the writer again passed by this swamp and found that 

 during the interval it had not been visited by a single moose. The moccasin tracks 

 had been scented, and the moose had left the neighborhood. A moose with a nose 

 as sensitive as this would find e.xistence unendurable in New Brunswick or Maine. 



In Maine and New Brunswick the animals answer the birch horn, under the 

 impression that it is the call of the cow. This calling is usually done in the evening 

 by lake or marsh; but in Nova Scotia, daybreak on a barren is the favorite hour 

 and place. Personally I have not much confidence in calling, and rely generally on 

 trailing; but bulls certainly are killed in this manner, although it seems that the 

 young bulls are much more apt to answer the call than the larger and more wary 

 animals. In Nova Scotia it seems to be a well-authenticated fact that bear have 

 been shot by moose callers, the bear apparently sneaking up to seize the supposed 

 cow. If this be true it must be a very rare occurrence, and is certainly the only 

 time I have ever heard that adult moose are attacked by bears. In the deep snow 

 of the northwest moose are sometimes killed by wolves hunting in packs, but the 

 price of such an attack must be high, because there are few, if any, animals in the 

 American n'oods more formidable than a moose at bav. 



