220 Tlie Wilderness Httnter. 



killed as elk. In fact, when run across by accident they 

 frequently showed a certain clumsy slowness of apprehen- 

 sion which amounted to downric^ht stupidity. One of the 

 most successful moose-hunters I know is Col. Cecil Clay, 

 of the Department of Law, in Washington ; he it was who 

 killed the moose composing the fine group mounted by 

 Mr. Hornaday, in the National Museum. Col. Clay lost 

 his right arm in the Civil War ; but is an expert rifleshot 

 nevertheless, using a short, light forty-four calibre old style 

 Winchester carbine. With this weapon he has killed 

 over a score of moose, by fair still-hunting ; and he tells 

 me that on similar ground he considers it if anything 

 rather less easy to still-hunt and kill a whitetail deer than 

 it is to kill a moose. 



My friend Col. James Jones killed two moose in a 

 day in northwestern Wyoming, not far from the Tetons ; 

 he was alone when he shot them and did not find them 

 especially wary. Ordinarily, moose are shot at fairly close 

 rano-e ; but another friend of mine, Mr. E. P. Rogers, once 

 dropped one with a single bullet, at a distance of nearly 

 three hundred yards. This happened by Bridger's Lake, 

 near Two-Ocean Pass. 



The moose has a fast walk, and its ordinary gait when 

 going at any speed is a slashing trot. Its long legs give 

 it a wonderful stride, enabling it to clear down-timber and 

 hio-h obstacles of all sorts without altering its pace. It 

 also leaps well. If much pressed or startled it breaks into 

 an awkward gallop, which is quite fast for a few hundred 

 yards, but which speedily tires it out. After being dis- 

 turbed by the hunter a moose usually trots a long distance 

 before halting. 



