262 The Wilderness Hunter 



ing in its own footsteps, where practicable. As 

 the snow steadily deepens, these lines of travel be- 

 come beaten paths. There results finally a space 

 half a mile square sometimes more, sometimes 

 very much less, according to the lay of the land, 

 and the number of moose yarding together 

 where the deep snow is seamed in every direction 

 by a network of narrow paths along which a moose 

 can travel at speed, its back level with the snow 

 round about. Sometimes, when moose are very 

 plentiful, many of these yards lie so close together 

 that the beasts can readily make their way from 

 one to another. When such is the case, the most 

 expert snowshoer, under the most favorable con- 

 ditions, can not overtake them, for they can then 

 travel very fast through the paths, keeping their 

 gait all day. In the early decades of the present cen- 

 tury, the first settlers in Aroostook County, Maine, 

 while moose-hunting in winter, were frequently baf- 

 fled in this manner. 



When hunters approach an isolated yard the 

 moose immediately leave it and run off through the 

 snow. If there is no crust, and if their long legs 

 can reach the ground, the snow itself impedes them 

 but little, because of their vast strength and endur- 

 ance. Snowdrifts which render an ordinary deer ab- 

 solutely helpless, and bring even an elk to a standstill, 

 offer no impediment whatever to a moose. If, as 

 happens very rarely, the loose snow is of such depth 



