MOOSE. 



Alee Americana. — Jardine. 



UNTIL within the last half century the Moose was almost uni- 

 versally distributed throughout the swamps and forests of 

 North America north of the forty-third parallel of latitude. In many 

 localities throughout the British Possessions it is still abundant, but 

 in the eastern United States it has almost disappeared. It has been 

 almost wholly confined within the last quarter of a century, in its 

 southern range on the Atlantic coast, to the State of Maine, where 

 there are still a very few living in the northwestern portions of that 

 State in the vicinity of the upper waters of the St. John River, and 

 far into the almost inaccessible parts northward of Moose Lake and 

 adjacent to New Brunswick. The time is not far distant when this 

 noble animal will not inhabit our country. The process of extermi- 

 nation is being carried forward with great rapidity. The Moose is 

 also found in the West among the Rocky Mountains as far south 

 as the northern boundary of Wyoming, and in the Sierra Nevadas 

 and Coast Range throughout Idaho, Oregon, Washington Territory 

 and Northern California. In the more thickly settled portions of 

 Canada their range is somewhat limited, but in the Province of 

 Quebec they are still met with about the Coulonge and Black Riv- 

 ers, and eastward of Quebec down as far as the Saguenay. They 

 are also more or less abundant in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 

 The Moose is the largest member of the deer family ; a mature 

 male standing higher than the average horse, measuring from seven- 

 teen to eighteen hands, and often weighing over a thousand pounds. 

 The males are considerably larger than the females. Their color is 

 quite variable, depending upon season and climate, some being of 

 an ashy grey, others of a darker grey, and a few in the autumn a 

 glossy black. The extremities of their hairs are usually brown or 

 black, and toward the centre and roots, dingy white. 



