THE MOOSE. 147 



winter; the bulls, in fact, are quite black at this season. 

 The cariboo turns nearly white in winter, the ermine, 

 weasel, and the American hare pure white. But the moose 

 is the monarch of the forest and needs no disguise. He 

 fears no beast of prey that lives in the northern regions. 

 Nature never contemplated giving animals protection 

 against man, to whom in the beginning was given dominion 

 over the beasts of the field. 



The moose is essentially a tree-eating animal. His 

 fore legs are so long and his neck so short that he could 

 not graze with comfort. The long prehensile upper lip 

 or mouffle serves the same purpose to him as the trunk of 

 the elephant. His neck is only about twelve inches in 

 length, but enormously strong and muscular, as it needs to 

 be in order to support the great head, which is two feet in 

 length, and the horns which weigh about fifty pounds in 

 a full-grown male. 



The fall is the best time of the year to visit the haunts 

 of the moose. The weather at this season is all that can 

 be desired, bright and clear and bracing, and if there is a 

 little frost at night, it only serves to make the sportsman 

 enjoy his camp fire all the more. Although he cannot 

 refrain from an involuntary shiver when he thinks of the 

 rigours of winter, yet he is disposed to be very tolerant 

 of these early and mild symptoms of Jack Frost's arrival, 

 for the sake of the brilliant and varied colours which the 

 woods assume at his first approach. No one who has not 

 seen it can have any conception of the beauty and variety 

 of the autumnal tints of the foliage in this country. On 

 one maple tree, even on one leaf, may be seen green, 

 yellow, scarlet, and crimson, and many different shades of 



