224 



The Wilderness Htmter. 



travels to and for across this space in straight Hnes and 

 irregular circles after food, treading in its own footsteps, 

 where practicable. As the snow steadily deepens, these 

 lines of travel become beaten paths. There results finally 

 a space half a mile square — sometimes more, sometimes 

 very much less, according to the lay of the land, and the 

 number of moose yarding together — where the deep snow 

 is seamed in every direction by a network of narrow paths 

 along which a moose can travel at speed, its back level 

 with the snow round about. Sometimes, when moose are 

 very plenty, many of these yards lie so close together that 

 the beasts can readily make their way from one to another. 

 When such is the case, the most expert snow-shoer, under 

 the most favorable conditions, cannot overtake them, for 

 they can then travel very fast through the paths, keeping 

 their gait all day. In the early decades of the present 

 century, the first settlers in Aroostook "County, Maine, 

 while moose-hunting in winter, were frequently baffled in 

 this manner. 



When hunters approach an isolated yard the moose 

 immediately leave it and run off through the snow. If 

 there is no crust, and if their long legs can reach the 

 ground, the snow itself impedes them but little, because 

 of their vast strenofth and endurance. Snowdrifts 

 which render an ordinary deer absolutely helpless, and 

 bring even an elk to a standstill, offer no impediment 

 whatever to a moose. If, as happens very rarely, the loose 

 snow is of such depth that even the stilt-like legs of the 

 moose cannot touch solid earth, it flounders and struggles 

 forward for a little time, and then sinks exhausted ; for a 



