78 THE MOOSE 



Real winter came in with November, inaugurated 

 by huge snow-flakes, which fell to the depth of 

 three feet in a single day, a condition of things 

 baffling to the young moose, whose first experience 

 of Alaskan climatic extremes it was. He had no 

 shelter, either, such as he could have obtained in 

 the forest under big timber, where the snow rarely 

 penetrates, but stood exposed to the storm, turning 

 round and round in liis endeavour to hide away 

 from its fury. By night the banked snow hid him 

 from the view of the shack, until, as the blizzard 

 showed no signs of ceasing, Sadie herself ploughed 

 her way through the drifts to retrieve her pet from 

 his ever-lessening corner, on which the all-engulfing 

 snow encroached. It was no easy matter for an 

 unsophisticated calf to get to the shack at all. In 

 later years he knew how to make headway through 

 deep snow by a series of well- calculated jumps, but 

 now he floundered and fell until, somehow or other, 

 he found himself within the log hut himself, sharing 

 it with Sadie, and a stretched-out, red-haired some- 

 thing, whom Mooswa recognized as the cause of all 

 his trouble. But for that insensate creature grasp- 

 ing a black bottle the moose cow would roam the 

 forest still. 



