304 Deer and Antelope of North America 



ite range of the moose, but there they have been 

 fearfully reduced in numbers. The Indians claim 

 that several years of great spring freshets, which 

 overflowed the islands at the season of the year 

 when the calves are very young, causing death in 

 the cold flood, was responsible for the great re- 

 duction in moose. Knowing the delta I believe 

 their theory correct. One Indian told me that 

 for several years after the floods had subsided, he 

 hunted the delta and killed many cow moose, but 

 they were always without calves. I sledded the 

 length of the delta three times and boated it 

 once through its entire length, and saw signs of 

 not more than five or six moose in the six hun- 

 dred miles of travel. 



Habits. — The habits of the moose vary with 

 the different sections of the country in which 

 they range. Animals, like people, to some extent 

 must conform to their surroundings. The habits 

 of the moose in the far North and West differ 

 from those of southern Canada and Maine in 

 many ways. In the North and West they do not 

 yard up in winter, and consequently do not live 

 much on the bark of trees in that season, they 

 do not feed to any extent on lily pads ; do not 

 run so much in the timber; and in some sec- 

 tions they range much higher in the mountains. 

 Bulls do not, in response to the hunter's birch- 

 bark-horn call, in imitation of the cow, come down 



