17 



ID.V. 



m.F, 





ad mink ; the ears long, hairy, and Minina ; the neck and withers are 

 amounted by a heavy mane; and the throat funiuhed with long 

 ooane hair, and in younger ipecimen* encumbered with a pendulous 

 gUnd : these give altogether an uncouth character to thin part of the 

 animal. Its body however is round, compact, and short; the tail not 

 more than four inches long ; and the legs, though very long, are 

 remarkably clean and firm ; this length of limbs and the overhanging 

 lips hare caused the ancients to fancy that it grazed walking back- 

 ward*. The hair of the animal is ooane and angular, breaking if bent 

 Its movement* are rather heavy, and the shoulders being higher than 

 the croup, it does not gallop, but shuffles or ambles along, its joints 

 cracking at every stp, with a sound heard to some distance. Increas- 

 ing its speed, the hind feet straddle to avoid treading on its fore heels, 

 t-tting the head and shoulders like a horse about to break from a trot 

 to a gallop. It does not leap, but steps without effort over a fallen 

 tree, a gate, or a split fence. During its progress it holds the nose up, 

 so as to lay the horns horizontally back. This attitude prevents its 

 ageing the ground distinctly ; and as the weight is carried very high 

 upon the elevated legs it is said sometimes to trip by treading on its 

 fore heels, or otherwise, and occasionally to give itself a heavy fall. 

 It is probably owing to this occurrence that the elk wns believed by 

 the ancients to have frequent attacks of epilepsy, and to be obliged to 

 smell its hoof before it could recover ; hence the Teutonic name of 

 Elend (miserable), and the reputation especially of the fore hoofs as 

 a specific against the disease." (Smith.) The Elk is an inhabitant of 

 woods in the northern parts of both continents. 



In 'A perfect Description of Virginia' (small 4 to. 1649), we find it 

 thus written : " The elkes are as great as oxen, their horns six foot 

 wide, and have two calves at a time." Hearne remarks that the horns 

 of the Moose occasionally exceed 60 Ibs., and that their texture is harder 

 than that of any other deer-horns to be found in the Fur Countries. 

 Lawson (' Nat Hist of Carolina') says, " The elk is a monster of the 

 venison sort. His skin is used almost in the same nature as the 

 buffelo's (bison's). Some take him for the red deer of America, but 

 he is not; for if brought and kept in company with one of that sort, 

 he will never couple. .... His horns exceed (in weight) all 

 creatures which the New World affords." Richardson states that he 

 has been informed that the males sometimes attain a weight of eleven 

 or twelve hundred pounds. 



" The flesh of the moose is very good, though the grain is but coarse, 

 and it is much tougher than any other kind of venison. The nose is 

 most excellent, as is also the tongue, though by no means so fat and 

 delicate as that of the common deer (rein-deer). The fat of the intes- 

 tines is hard like suet ; but all the external fat is soft like that of a 

 breast of mutton, and when put into a bladder is as fine as marrow. 

 In this they differ from all the other species of deer, of which the 

 external fat is as hard as that of the kidnies." (Hearne.) In the 

 ' Perfect Description of Virginia,' above quoted, it is stated that the 

 " skins make good buffe, and the flesh as good as beefe." Lawson, 

 though he speaks of the good qualities of the skin, does not seem to 

 have so high an opinion of the flesh. "His flesh," says Lawson, "is 

 not so sweet as the lesser deem." Richardson remarks that the flesh 

 of the moose is more relished by the Indians and residents in the Fur 

 Countries than that of any other animal, and principally, he believes, 

 on account of the soft fat In his opinion, corroborating the old book 

 above quoted, the flesh bears a greater resemblance in its flavour to 

 beef than to venison. 



The same author describes the dung of the animal as being in the 

 form of brown oval pellets, and such were the droppings from the 

 individuals kept at the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's 

 Park. "The skins," Sir John Richardson observes, "when properly 

 dressed, make a soft, thick, pliable leather, excellently adapted for 

 mocasinx, or other articles of winter clothing. The Dog-Ribs," he adds, 

 "excel in the art of dressing the skins, which is done in the following 

 manner : They are first scraped to an equal thickness throughout, 

 and the hair taken off by a scraper, made of the shin-bone of a deer, 

 split longitudinally ; they are then repeatedly moistened and rubbed, 

 after being smeared with the brains of the animal, until they acquire 

 a soft spongy feel ; and lastly, they are suspended over a tire m:ele >!' 

 rotten wood until they are well impregnated with the smoke. The 

 last-mentioned procens imparts a peculiar odour to the leather, am! has 

 the effect of preventing it from becoming so hard after being wet as it 

 would otherwise do." (' Fauna Boreali-Americana,') 



i Prate," writes Sir John Richardson, " informs us that in his 

 time moose-deer were found as far south as the Ohio, and Denys says 

 that they were once plentiful on the island of Cnp Breton, though 

 at the time he wrote they had been extirpated. At present, a< . 

 to Dr. Qodman, they are not known in the State of Minr, )< 

 exist in considerable numbers in the neighbourhood of the Bay of 

 Kundy. They frequent the woody tracts in thf Fur Countries t<> their 

 most northern limit Several were seen on Captain Franklin' 

 ilition at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, fii .ling on the willows, 

 which owing to the rich alluvial deixwit* on that great river extend to 

 the shores of the Arctic Sea in I .rtl.er to the eastward, 



towards the Coppermine River, they are not found in a higher lati- 

 tude than 85% on account of the scarci! arren Grounds of 

 the aspen and willow, which constitute their f".d. I have not been 

 able to ascertain whether they occupy the whole width of the con- 



tinent or not Mackenzie saw them high up on the eastern d. 

 of the Rocky Mountains near the sources of the Klk River, 

 suspect that they are rarely, if ever, found to the westward of tli- 

 Mountains. Authors mention that the moose generally form small 

 herds in Canada. 



The Klk or Meow (Alecs 



' In the more northern parts the moose-deer is quite a solitary 

 animal, more than one being very seldom seen at a time, unless during 

 the rutting season, or when the female is accompanied by her fawns. 

 It has the sense of hearing in very great perfection and is the most 

 shy and wary of all the deer-species, and on this account thf art of 

 moose-hunting is looked upon as the greatest of au Indian's acquire- 

 ments, particularly by the Crees, who take to themselves the < 

 being able to instruct the hunters of every other tribe. The skill of 

 a moose-hunter is most tried in the early part of the winter: for 

 during the summer the moose, as well as other animals, are so much 

 tormented by musquitoes that they become regardless of tin ai 

 of man. In the winter the hunter tracks the moose by its foot- 

 marks in the snow, and it is necessary that he should keep constantly 

 to leeward of the chase and make his advances with the utmost 

 caution, for the rustling of a withered leaf or the cracking of a i 

 twig is sufficient to alarm the watchful beast The difficulty of 

 approach is increased by a habit which the moose-deer has of making 

 daily a sharp turn in its route, and choosing a place of repose so 

 near some part of its path that it can hear the least noise made by 

 one that attempts to track it To avoid this the judicious 1 

 instead of walking in the animal's footsteps forms his judgment from 

 the appearance of the country of the direction it is likch t,. have 

 taken, and makes a circuit to leeward until he again finds the track. 

 This manoeuvre is repeated until be discovers, by the softness of the 

 snow in the foot-marks and other signs, that he is very near thf 

 chase. He then disencumbers himself of everything that, might 

 embarrass his motions, and makes his approach in the most can 

 manner. If he gets close to the animal's lair without being seen, it 

 is usual for him to break a small twig, which alarming the moose, it, 

 instantly starts up, but not fully aware of the danger squats < 

 hams and voids its urine preparatory to setting off. In this j 



it preseuts tl -lk. an.l the hunter's .-hot seldom fail., t,, take 



effect in a mortal part. In the rutting season the bucks lay 

 their timidity, and attack every animal that comes in their wa 

 even conquer their fear of man himself. The hunters then Wing 

 them within gun-shot ly scraping on the Made-hone "f a deer and 

 by whistling, which, deceiving the male, lie Mindly ha.-teu- ),. tl, 

 to assail his supposed rival. If the hunter fails in giving it a mortal 

 wound as it approaches, he shelters himself from its fury In-hind a 

 tree, and I hare heard of several instances in which the enraged 

 animal has completely stripped the bark from the trunk of a large 

 tree by striking with it 



With respect to the ' ..... 1 "f the Moose the same tra<. 

 " Their legs are so long, and their necks so short, that they cannot 

 graze on the level ground 1' !i:m:!-, lmt .ire .iMi-.d to 



browse on the tojui of large plants and the leaves of tree* in the 

 -iimmcr, and in winter they always feed on the tops of willows and 

 the small branches of the l.ir.-h tree, cm which account they are never 

 found during that, season but in such places as can afl'ord <!> 



id supply of tin i i, v have no 



fore teeth in the upper jaw, yet I li and small 



birch-trees cropped by them in the same manner as if they had !-, n 

 cut by a gardener's shears, though soine.it them were not smaller 

 than a common pipe-stem. They seem particularly partial to red 

 " (Corniu alba). To the eastward of tho Rocky Mountains 



