The Moose. 207 



ponds and island-like clumps of spruce and graceful 

 tamaracks. 



Having surveyed the ground and found moose sign the 

 preceding afternoon, we were up betimes in the cool 

 morning to begin our hunt. Before sunrise we were 

 posted on a rocky spur of the foot-hills, behind a mask of 

 evergreens ; ourselves unseen we overlooked all the valley, 

 and we knew we could see any animal which might be 

 either feeding away from cover or on its journey home- 

 ward from its feeding ground to its day-bed. 



As it grew lighter we scanned the valley with increas- 

 ing care and eagerness. The sun rose behind us ; and 

 almost as soon as it was up we made out some large beast 

 moving among the dwarf willows beside a little lake half 

 a mile in our front. In a few minutes the thing walked 

 out where the bushes were thinner, and we saw that it was 

 a young bull moose browsing on the willow tops. He had 

 evidently nearly finished his breakfast, and he stood idly 

 for some moments, now and then lazily cropping a mouth- 

 ful of twig tips. Then he walked off with great strides in 

 a straight line across the marsh, splashing among the wet 

 water-plants, and ploughing through boggy spaces with the 

 indifference begotten of vast strength and legs longer than 

 those of any other animal on this continent. At times he 

 entered beds of reeds which hid him from view, though 

 their surging and bending showed the wake of his passage ; 

 at other times he walked through meadows of tall grass, 

 the withered yellow stalks rising to his flanks, while his 

 body loomed above them, glistening black and wet in the 

 level sunbeams. Once lie stopped for a few moments on 



