88 ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



for " camping " out at night, set out in search of their game. 

 Having found their animal, they wait till daybreak, when the 

 dogs are laid on, and the hunters wearing large snow shoes 

 follow as closely as possible. The deer does not run far, be- 

 fore the crust on the snow through which he breaks at every 

 step, cuts his legs so severely that the poor animal stands at 

 bay, and endeavors to defend himself by striking with his 

 fore feet, but the arrival of the hunter soon ends his career. 



The skin of the Moose is of great value to the Indian, as it 

 is used for tent covers, clothing, &c. It is feared from the 

 rapid destruction of these animals, and the way in which they 

 have diminished of late years, that the species will eventually 

 become extinct. 



" In the winter of 1842, twenty three officers," as we are 

 informed by Porter, " of the Grenadier and Coldstream 

 Guards, then in garrison at Quebec and Montreal, killed 

 during a short hunting tour, ninety-three Moose. None of 

 the parties were absent more than fourteen days." But a 

 more remarkable fact, as related by " Frank Forrester," was 

 " the killing of three moose with a common fowling piece, by 

 an officer not reputed to be very crack as a shot, on the 

 Mountain, within a few miles of Montreal, during a morning's 

 walk from that populous city." He also cites another instance 

 of a friend killing seven of these glorious animals on the 

 River St. Maurice, in the rear of the pretty village of Three 

 Rivers, all of which he ran into upon snow shoes, after a chase 

 of about three days. 



THE REINDEER, or CARIBOO ( Cervus tarandm or Tarandus 

 rangifer). 



Description. Body robust, and low on the legs ; snout 

 thin, with oblique nostrils ; ears large ; horns usually slender, 

 the main stem directed backwards, terminating in a broad 

 palmated expansion ; hoofs rounded ; color varies with age ; 

 a smooth coat of grayish brown, beneath the throat and 

 belly, white. 



