302 Deer and Antelope of North America 



subject is that they have, during the past fifty 

 years, acquired a large amount of territory in the 

 North. I believe they have acquired within our 

 present history of them almost or quite as much 

 territory as they have lost, and that their range is 

 almost or quite as large at the present day as it 

 ever has been. They are now numerous in a 

 very large territory in northwest British Colum- 

 bia, through the Cassiar Mountains, on Level 

 Mountain, and throughout the head waters of the 

 Stickine River, where thirty years ago they were 

 unknown. They are now abundant on the Kenai 

 Peninsula, Alaska, and in other sections of the 

 North where at one time they did not exist. Acqui- 

 sition of territory by so wary an animal as the 

 moose can only be accounted for in one way. 

 Many years ago the Indian tribes occupying these 

 sections were very numerous and inimical to 

 moose life, but, since the Indians have dwindled 

 from thousands to insignificant numbers, the 

 moose finds comparatively unmolested life. This 

 I know to be the case on the Kenai and in the 

 country referred to in northwest British Colum- 

 bia ; and there are many similar changes in con- 

 ditions in other parts of the North, notably in the 

 Nahanna River country, north of the Liard, where 

 the entire tribe of Indians that once hunted the 

 country have died out, to the very great increase 

 of moose. 



