MOOSE. 51 



In the wilds of Nova Scotia, Moose have been seen with spark- 

 ling grizzly coats in September. The young are of a quakerish 

 brown color, which grows darker with age. The hair is exceed- 

 ingly coarse and strong, and somewhat brittle. That it breaks 

 when bent is not true, since the squaws color and use it in their 

 ornamental work. With the advance of winter the coats assume 

 a darker hue, and the hairs grow longer and thicker. The necks 

 of the males are surmounted with a mane of stiff hairs, varying in 

 length from five to ten inches, which, when the animals are enraged, 

 bristle up like the mane of a lion. Two fleshy appendages —dew- 

 laps of loose skins — hang from the throat, and are covered with 

 long black hairs. The tail is very short, so short that Thoreau, in 

 an examination of a moose in the Maine woods, overlooked it al- 

 together. The most striking peculiarities of these animals are 

 enormous length of legs, head, and ears, short and thick body, 

 small eyes, immense nostrils, and an elongated, thick, ponderous, 

 and flexible upper lip. And this lip is so peculiarly and curiously 

 constructed as to warrant a full and particular description of its 

 formation and use. Some writer has described it as of a " size 

 between the lip of the horse and that of a tapir," It is square in 

 shape and furrowed in the middle, appearing divided. The varied 

 and rapid movements of this heavy protruding muscular develop- 

 ment are due to four pairs of strong muscles arising from the max- 

 illaries. The hind hoofs of the moose are perfectly formed, and 

 so well proportioned as to make a beautiful foot ; long, slender, 

 convex, and tapering. The horny points or spurs, and not the 

 hoofs, make the clattering sound when the animal is in motion. 

 The fore feet are flatter, somewhat shorter, and less tapering than 

 the hind feet. The average length of the hoof in the mature ani- 

 mal is about seven inches by four in greatest breadth, but they are 

 sometimes much larger. 



The peculiar lip, long legs, and short neck have direct reference 

 to the mode of life of these animals. They live only in forests, and 

 subsist alone by browsing, since in the wild state they never graze. 

 Their long fore legs enable them, to reach far up into birch and 

 maple trees to secure the tender and nutritious branches, and to 

 feed on the side of deep acclivities where the moosewood and the 

 willow trees grow in great abundance. By these giraffe-like legs 



