American Big-Game Hunting 



only to a limited degree, but probably they 

 occur in somewhat larger numbers than is 

 generally supposed. While they are migra- 

 tory in habit, their requirements restrict their 

 favorite haunts to limited and inaccessible 

 areas, and they prefer swampy and boggy 

 regions in the lowlands to the meadows and 

 grassy parks of the uplands. They roam 

 mainly in the southwest corner of the Park, in 

 the Falls River Basin, a level country fed by 

 innumerable streams and springs coming out 

 from beneath the lavas of the plateau. As 

 this basin lies partly in Idaho, beyond the 

 borders of the Park, and the moose wander in 

 and out of the reservation, their protection is 

 a matter of great difficulty ; yet it is important, 

 not only on account of their scarcity, but be- 

 cause it is near the southern limit of their 

 range. They do not travel in large bands, 

 and a country tramped up by moose is un- 

 known in the Park. In many instances they 

 have probably been mistaken for elk. I have 

 detected their footprints in the broad valley 

 of the Snake, below the mouth of Lewis 

 River, and also in the Lower Geyser Basin, 

 on Sentinel Creek, a small area, but one ad- 



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