202 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



that the habits of this moose, which is ordinarily notorious for the 

 size of its range, differ very materially from those of the ordinary 

 moose. The area in which these animals are now found barely 

 measures ten miles in diameter, though the surrounding territory 

 is equally uninhabited, and in many places apparently offers good 

 food and cover closely approximating that selected from choice 

 by the eastern moose. 



Moose Mountain is a table-land rising from 800 to 1,500 feet 

 above the bottom of the surrounding caiions. The longest diam- 

 eter lies north and south and is about two miles in length, while 

 the breadth is one mile. The mountain is half in the Yellowstone 

 Park and half in the Idaho Forest Reserve. On the western side 

 the Little Robinson Creek rises and from the southern and eastern 

 faces small cafion streams flow into the Big Robinson. The sur- 

 rounding country in general closely resembles the foothills of the 

 Rocky Mountains throughout Idaho and Wyoming. The coun- 

 try is drained by the Warm River and by the Big and Little Rob- 

 inson Creeks, all of which empty into the North Fork of the Snake 

 River. The altitude of the cafion beds is about 6,000 feet and the 

 highest of the hills rise to 7,000 or 8,000 feet. The topography 

 is much broken, and there are no fiats or prairies of any consider- 

 able size. Except in the spring the country is very dry, and water 

 is found only in the widely separated streams and in the Big and 

 Little Robinsons. These watercourses are confined to canons, 

 mostly narrow and rocky, often with very precipitous sides. The 

 larger of these gulches measure from 100 to 300 yards in width, 

 but the sides are always broken, steep, and usually almost devoid 

 of vegetation, except for scattering bunches of sage brush or a 

 few scrubby pines. 



The floors of most of the wider canons show a sparse growth 

 of " buffalo grass," but where the streams have broadened out, so 

 as to irrigate considerable patches of ground, grass grows lux- 

 uriantly from early spring until the snow falls. Natural marsh- 

 land is very scarce, but owing to beaver dams, for beaver are quite 

 plentiful, there are considerable areas of artificial marsh backing 

 into the side canons ; in these, rushes and an abundance of succu- 

 lent grass and water-lilies are to be found. Between the North 

 Fork and the Warm River there are considerable tracts of natural 

 slough in which lilies and rushes grow abundantly, as in Cal's 

 Lake and Duck Pond. Notwithstanding the fact that moose oc- 

 casionally wander into this country, otherwise entirely uninhabited, 

 I have never seen evidence of their using these ponds for feeding 

 purposes, though they sometimes go to them for water. 



