THE MOOSE. 243 



dwells helps it even more than do its own 

 sharp senses. It is true that I made many 

 trips in vain before killing my first moose ; 

 but then I had to hunt through tangled timber, 

 where I could hardly move a step without 

 noise, and could never see thirty yards ahead. 

 If moose were found in open park-like forests 

 like those where I first killed elk, on the 

 Bighorn Mountains, or among brushy coulies 

 and bare hills, like the Little Missouri Bad 

 Lands, where I first killed blacktail deer, I 

 doubt whether they would prove especially 

 difficult animals to bag. My own experience 

 is much too limited to allow me to speak with 

 any certainty on the point ; but it is borne out 

 by what more skilled hunters have told me. 

 In the Big Hole Basin, in southwest Montana, 

 moose were quite plentiful in the late 'seven- 

 ties. Two or three of the old settlers, whom 

 I know as veteran hunters and trustworthy 

 men, have told me that in those times the 

 moose were often found in very accessible 

 localities ; and that when such was the case 

 they were quite as easily killed as elk. In 

 fact, when run across by accident they fre- 

 quently showed a certain clumsy slowness 

 of apprehension which amounted to down- 

 right 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 rifle 

 shot nevertheless, using a short, light forty- 

 four calibre old style Winchester carbine. 



