The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 
then I had to admit that this was no coincidence, 
but part of an organized action of the south- 
ward migration from their breeding grounds in 
the far north. 
I could just manage to hobble about a little 
on the third day, and was preparing to go out 
for a short turn, thinking that the exercise 
might take the stiffness from my knee-joint, 
when Hunter saw a bull moose approaching - 
camp from the valley where I had killed the 
sheep. This beast had not a big head, but he 
was the first I had ever seen in Alaska. If he 
continued on the same course as he now held, he 
would pass within sixty yards of my tent. We 
therefore awaited developments. In a very few 
minutes those long legs had brought him oppo- 
site the camp. He then seemed to see us, but 
instead of turning tail on his tracks he slightly 
diverged to the left. I fired at his shoulder, 
and with the one ‘303 bullet killed him dead on 
the spot. On examining him I found that his 
horns were not clean from their velvet. When 
the horns are growing, and until they are hard, 
the moose in this locality pass a great part of 
their time in the mountains above timber line, 
to avoid injury to the very sensitive horns whilst 
they are growing, and possibly also to avoid the 
attacks of insects, such as mosquitoes, only 
resorting to the woods and valleys so soon as the 
horn is hard and the time of rutting at hand. 
260 
