MOOSE. 237 



of game qualities, ill suited for food, unsightly to the eye, and very destructive to 

 the spawn of game fish. 



Any animal native to a country can be restored if the proper stock is obtained ; 

 but the chances are always against the acclimatization of animals from other 

 countries. That this is particularly true of all of the American hoofed animals is a 

 melancholy fact. The wapiti thrives in the east, but we all know that it was once 

 native to the Adirondacks. The buffalo lives and breeds fairly well in the east, but 

 not as well as might be expected when we remember that the buffalo once ranged to 

 tidewater in Virginia. 



We are as yet in ignorance of the causes which limit the distribution of animals, 

 but the questions at issue are of far greater moment than even the perpetuation of 

 the animals themselves. One of the political problems of the immediate future is 

 the acclimatization of the white races in the tropics. It may be done, but only 

 through the discovery of the laws that affect the distribution of animals, as. the laws 

 governing men and governing animals are in all cases the same. The New York 

 Zoological Society is earnestly trying to solve the problem in the case of the moose, 

 the caribou and the western deer. 



In the New York Zoological Park the moose were given a large paddock five or 

 six acres in extent, furnished with a pond for bathing, shade trees against the sun, 

 and a shelter barn for the storms of winter. They were tempted with every kind of 

 food, from rolled oats to browse. Bark, leaves and twigs of hemlock, alder, birch and 

 willow were supplied them in quantities. Thej' ate freely, lived a few months and 

 then died suddenly of gastro-enteritis. It may be that aii animal accustomed to 

 roam daily over many miles of forest for its food, nipping a bud of moose wood 

 here, tearing off a piece of spruce bark there, requires an amount of exercise to keep 

 him in condition which no fenced inclosure can provide. If the animal could be 

 made to run fifteen or twenty miles a day without dashing himself against the 

 fence and injuring himself, something might be done ; meanwhile we must go 

 on experimenting. 



In the case of the moose, which originally ranged comparatively close to the city 

 of New York, and which in Maine and Nova Scotia still comes down to tidewater, a 

 solution of the problem should be found. The buffalo suffer from the same dread 

 disease, but in their case the stock is already weakened by inbreeding, and the day 

 of their final extinction is not far off. 



The mule deer and the Columbia black tail deer die in the same way ; but in 

 their case climate probably plays a considerable part. For some unknown reason 



