The Moose. 225 



caribou is the only large animal which can travel under 

 such conditions. If there be a crust, even though the 

 snow is not remarkably deep, the labor of the moose is 

 vastly increased, as it breaks through at every step, cutting 

 its legs and exhausting itself. A caribou, on the other 

 hand, will go across a crust as well as a man on snow-shoes, 

 and can never be caught by the latter, save under altogether 

 exceptional conditions of snowfall and thaw. 



" Crusting," or following game on snow-shoes, is, as the 

 name implies, almost always practised after the middle of 

 February, when thaws begin, and the snow crusts on top. 

 The conditions for success in crusting moose and deer are 

 very different. A crust through which a moose would 

 break at every stride may carry a running deer without 

 mishap ; while the former animal would trot at ease through 

 drifts in which the latter would be caught as if in a quick- 

 sand. 



Hunting moose on snow, therefore, may be, and very 

 often is, mere butchery ; and because of this possibility or 

 probability, and also because of the fact that it is by far 

 the most destructive kind of hunting, and is carried on at 

 a season when the bulls are hornless and the cows heavy 

 with calf, it is rigidly and properly forbidden wherever 

 there are good game-laws. Yet this kind of hunting may 

 also be carried on under circumstances which render it if 

 not a legitimate, yet a most exciting and manly sport, only 

 to be followed by men of tried courage, hardihood, and 

 skill. This is not because it ever necessitates any skill 

 whatever in the use of the rifle, or any particular knowl- 

 edge of hunting-craft ; but because under the conditions 



