182 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



snow-shoes, the other is stilts. These are illustrated respec- 

 tively in the Lynx and the Moose. Undoubtedly, snow-shoes 

 are superior. When the snow is deep and crusted, the Lynx is 

 even better off, but the Moose is in a sad plight. Probably it 

 is only at such times that the adults have cause to fear the 

 Wolves. 



It is a fact that the least danger man has to meet in wild 

 countries is from wild beasts. It is so small to-day that it 

 does not count; his greatest perils are wild men, disease, hun- 

 ger, and insects. The Moose is in a similar case, except that 

 he is in no danger of starvation, and, being a stay-at-home, is 

 less likely to get disease than is a stranger in a strange cUmate. 



Acci- A most singular case came to my knowledge in Manitoba 



AND some years ago. It will be remembered that after the failure of 

 DISEASES ^j^g first Atlantic cable, in 1858, a telegraph line was planned 

 across the continent by way of Winnipeg and Alaska to be 

 carried under Bering's Strait and overland to St. Petersburg 

 and Paris. This was completed for some hundreds of miles 

 when the success of the new cable in 1867 put a stop to the 

 work and the useless wire hung there till the poles rotted. But 

 this wire was made before the era of trusts; it was well gal- 

 vanized, and is sound to-day. In the fall of 1884 a bull Moose 

 butting playfully at one of the tottering poles brought it down 

 on his head, and presently found the wire entangled in his 

 antlers. He struggled and tusselled, getting more and more 

 wound up, until he was helpless, and died there. The carcass 

 was found by Chief Metayash some weeks afterward. It 

 was a very fine, large Moose, and had over 200 pounds of wire 

 fast to his head and horns. The ground around for an acre 

 was beaten and trampled black — not a stick nor a green thing 

 was left on it. 



This, with another curious thing in Moose life, was re- 

 ported to me by William G. Tweddell, of Woonona, Manitoba. 

 He asked me if I ever heard of the Peeto-mong-sons or 

 'Little Moose in the Big Moose.' One Moose in about 500, 

 he said, has a little medicine Moose in its skin. When this is 



