94 THE MOOSE 



moving at leisure through the forest — a fact all 

 the more remarkable when the enormous weight 

 of such beasts as moose and bears is considered. 

 Going off, startled, a moose crashes through all 

 obstacles anyhow, but given his own time he can 

 pass through the thickest cover silently as a 

 panther. 



The young moose did not stay to investigate 

 what sort of an enemy was afoot, but with a finesse 

 worthy of a beast three times his age made straight 

 for the dense cover farthest from the spot whence 

 the sudden crack had proceeded. A bullet pinged 

 by his ear, taking out a strip of it neatly ; another 

 grazed his hock. 



The encounter drove him in an access of un- 

 reasoning fear through the forest to the uplands, to 

 unmoose-like regions which led, after hours of rest- 

 less trekking, to the barrens at the foot of the 

 mountains. So long as the food-supply held out 

 he enjoyed the adventure. It was something to 

 have reached an apparently unhunted corner of the 

 wild, to be journeying in parts unknown to any 

 other of his tribe. These slopes leading to the 

 divide above the Sushitna River belonged to the 

 caribou. Their shed antlers told him so, even if 



