MOOSE RUNNING THROUGH BUSH. 167 



(Three were seen and two killed). In this district 

 of country, in Sir S. Baker's time, game of all sorts 

 was extraordinarily numerous, especially buffalo, which 

 roamed in large herds over some adjacent plains. We 

 have quoted the incident because it is very rare to 

 find game so numerous in dense jungle tracts, or to 

 find a forest pool so situated as to render night shoot- 

 ing practicable, as in this instance. The explanation 

 of the concourse of game is furnished by the scarcity 

 of water, which obliged them to congregate where it 

 was to be found, in the way described by Sir S. Baker. 



In the great American forests of the temperate zone, 

 where water is plentiful, as we have said, such numerous 

 collections of game are exceedingly rare, but in common 

 with those of the tropical jungles their large game animals 

 are all endowed with a similar stealthy nature of 

 movement which enables then to slip away through 

 the thickest undergrowth, almost without creating a 

 sound. The moose and the wapiti (or elk) for instance, 

 are adepts at it, and so use their great horns like a 

 species of armour as to brush aside the branches 

 without creating any audible sound of crashing through 

 the bushes, which seem to be gently swept out of the 

 way, and then to close up again in the rear of the 

 passing animal, in the most perfect and adroit manner 

 conceivable. It is only when one of these beasts is 

 come upon suddenly, and thus becomes panic-stricken, 

 that it dashes off furiously through everything, in a 

 panic; but in general as we have said they make 

 little or no sound in their flight. Bears in the same 

 way roll off, and disappear through the underwood, 

 almost before one can catch sight of them. Thus Mr. 

 Phillips Wolley relates the following incident, which 



