The Moose 251 



inferior to ordinary buckskin; caribou hide is the 

 best of all, especially when used as webbing for 

 snowshoes. 



The moose is very fond of frequenting swampy 

 woods throughout the summer, and indeed late into 

 the fall. These swampy woods are not necessarily 

 in the lower valleys, some being found very high 

 among the mountains. By preference it haunts 

 those containing lakes, where it can find the long 

 lily-roots of which it is so fond, and where it can 

 escape the torment of the mosquitoes and deer-flies 

 by lying completely submerged save for its nostrils. 

 It is a bold and good swimmer, readily crossing 

 lakes of large size; but it is of course easily slain 

 if discovered by canoe-men while in the water. It 

 travels well through bogs, but not as well as the 

 caribou ; and it will not venture on ice at all if it can 

 possibly avoid it. 



After the rut begins the animals roam everywhere 

 through the woods; and where there are hardwood 

 forests the winter-yard is usually made among them, 

 on high ground, away from the swamps. In the 

 mountains the deep snows drive the moose, like 

 all other game, down to the lower valleys, in hard 

 winters. In the summer it occasionally climbs to 

 the very summits of the wooded ranges, to escape 

 the flies; and it is said that in certain places where 

 wolves are plenty the cows retire to the tops of the 

 mountains to calve. More often, however, they 



