The Moose. 



22 I 



One thing which renders the chase of the moose partic- 

 ularly interesting is the fact that there is in it on rare 

 occasions a spice of peril. Under certain circumstances it 

 may be called dangerous quarry, being, properly speaking, 

 the only animal of the deer kind which ever fairly deserves 

 the title. In a hand to hand grapple an elk or caribou, 

 or even under exceptional circumstances a blacktail or a 

 whitetail, may show itself an ugly antagonist ; and indeed 

 a maddened elk may for a moment take the offensive ; 

 but the moose is the only one of the tribe with which this 

 attitude is at all common. In bodily strength and capa- 

 city to do harm it surpasses the elk ; and in temper it is 

 far more savage and more apt to show fight when assailed 

 by man ; exactly as the elk in these respects surpasses the 

 common deer. Two hunters with whom I was well ac- 

 quainted once wintered between the Wind River Moun- 

 tains and the Three Tetons, many years ago, in the days 

 of the buffalo. They lived on game, killing it on snow- 

 shoes ; for the most part wapiti and deer, but also bison, 

 and one moose, though they saw others. The wapiti bulls 

 kept their antlers two months longer than the moose ; 

 nevertheless, when chased they rarely made an effort to 

 use them, while the hornless moose displayed far more 

 pugnacity, and also ran better through the deep snow. 

 The winter was very severe, the snows were heavy and 

 the crusts hard ; so that the hunters had little trouble in 

 overtaking their game, although — being old mountain-men, 

 and not hide-hunters — they killed only what was needed. 

 Of course in such hunting they came very close to the 

 harried game, usually after a chase of from twenty minutes 

 to three hours. They found that the ordinary deer would 



