220 The Wilderness Hunter. 



killed as elk. In fact, when run across by accident they 

 frequently showed a certain clumsy slowness of apprehen- 

 sion which amounted to downright stupidity. One of the 

 most successful moose-hunters I know is Col. Cecil Clay, 

 of the Department of Law, in Washington ; he it was who 

 killed the moose composing the fine group mounted by 

 Mr. Hornaday, in the National Museum. Col. Clay lost 

 his right arm in the Civil War ; but is an expert rifleshot 

 nevertheless, using a short, light forty-four calibre old style 

 Winchester carbine. With this weapon he has killed 

 over a score of moose, by fair still-hunting ; and he tells 

 me that on similar ground he considers it if anything 

 rather less easy to still-hunt and kill a whitetail deer than 

 it is to kill a moose. 



My friend Col. James Jones killed two moose in a 

 day in northwestern Wyoming, not far from the Tetons ; 

 he was alone when he shot them and did not find them 

 especially wary. Ordinarily, moose are shot at fairly close 

 range ; but another friend of mine, Mr. E. P. Rogers, once 

 dropped one with a single bullet, at a distance of nearly 

 three hundred yards. This happened by Bridger's Lake, 

 near Two-Ocean Pass. 



The moose has a fast walk, and its ordinary gait when 

 going at any speed is a slashing trot. Its long legs give 

 it a wonderful stride, enabling it to clear down-timber and 

 high obstacles of all sorts without altering its pace. It 

 also leaps well. If much pressed or startled it breaks into 

 an awkward gallop, which is quite fast for a few hundred 

 yards, but which speedily tires it out. After being dis- 

 turbed by the hunter a moose usually trots a long distance 

 before halting. 



