Moose 179 



George H, Measham, of Woonona, Manitoba, writes me con- 

 cerning a tame Moose that he knew: "It had an instinctive 

 knowledge of changes in the weather, and before a winter's 

 storm would always run around in a circle a few times, then 

 lie down in the most exposed place it could find, facing the 

 wind." 



The Moose is so marvellously gifted with smell, hearing, 

 wariness, and speed, that a skilful Moose hunter is conceded 

 to have achieved the perfection of woodcraft. Yet it has been 

 found numberless times that a Moose seeing a man, without 

 smelling him, is likely to stand and gaze at him in blank 

 curiosity. This happens oftenest during the summer, while 

 the Moose is In the water, and the man in a canoe. Such 

 occasions afford great chances to the camera hunter. Nearly 

 all good photographs of wild Moose have been taken at such 

 times. 



Commenting on this habit R. MacFarlane says:^^ "While 

 standing in the water they sometimes seem quite indifferent to 

 the near presence of man, and will then retire only after being 

 repeatedly fired at. I myself had proof of this on one occasion 

 when ascending the Anderson River in the end of June, 1866. 

 There were five of six in the party, when we discovered three 

 full-grown Moose in the water. As they were not in good con- 

 dition, we did not care to kill them, but in order to test the truth 

 of this peculiarity I made the Indians fire a number of shots 

 very close to them, but to no purpose. In fact, we had to 

 scream and yell at them before they got out and stalked away 

 at a very leisurely pace." 



Another remarkable weakness of the species is the deep 

 sleep that sometimes possesses it. An instance of this was 

 related to me by William Clark, of the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 at Winnipeg: 



He was crossing the wooded country between Lakes 

 Manitoba and Winnipeg in the early spring, and had with 



^ Mam. N. W. T. Proc. U. S. N. M., 1905, p. 678. 



