270 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



by an admiring crowd of Indians of all ages and 

 conditions. Dyche was not disposed to drive them 

 away, for he obtained much valuable information re- 

 garding the habits of the moose. It was a new and 

 queer experience for the naturalist to sit with a dozen 

 Indians and Brown and talk of hunting adventures 

 through the medium of an interpreter. 



The moose is the largest member of the deer family 

 and the most awkward in appearance, but at the same 

 time he is the wariest and shyest of them all. An 

 old cow moose, with her ugly head and long ears, 

 looks so much like a mule that new hunters frequent- 

 ly let it go, thinking they have run across some 

 trader's stray animal. When they discover their 

 mistake they make up for it by shooting the next 

 mule they see, under the supposition that it is a 

 moose. One of the most difficult anatomical construc- 

 tions that Dyche ever attempted to mount was the 

 nose of a moose. It consists of such a complication of 

 cartilaginous boxes and partitions as to present many 

 hard problems in taxiderni3 r . The general colour of a 

 moose, when seen at a distance, is black, but on closer 

 inspection it is found to be tinged with red, brown, 

 and gray hairs, the black changing into gray and 

 white on the legs. There are many colour varieties, 

 some being very dark while others present an ashen 

 appearance. 



Brown told much about the moose that he had 

 learned from actual experience, while Dyche gave in- 

 formation gleaned from books, supplemented by many 

 of his own adventures. This talk was interpreted 

 to the other Indians by Gib and the red men were 



