96 The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 



and their numbers are much diminished. In the 

 summer they frequent the vicinities of rivers and 

 lakes, not only to escape the attacks of insects by 

 plunging into the water, where only their noses and 

 horns appear above the surface, but also to avoid 

 injuring their antlers, w^iich during their growth 

 arc very soft and sensitive. Here also the moose 

 finds abundant provision, feeding on the water 

 plants, or browsing on the trees fringing the shore. 

 In the winter they retire to the wooded mountain 

 ridges, and associate together in groups of three, 

 four or even more, beating down the snow with 

 their hoofs, and forming what are known as 

 "yards," which are generally found on the slope 

 facing the south, where there is abundance of 

 maple and of other hard-wood trees upon which 

 they feed, either by browsing on the tender twigs or 

 peeling the bark from the stems of such as are 

 only three or four inches in diameter. Though not 

 so long as the giraffe's, their pendulous upper lip is 

 admirably adapted for grasping and pulling down 

 the branches, whilst they peel off the bark by 

 scraping upwards with their sharp gouge-like teeth, 

 and thus denude the tree to the height of seven or 

 eight feet from the surface of the snow. When 

 every tree in the neighbourhood of a " yccfd " has 

 been stripped, the moose will leave it; but so averse 



