THE MOOSE. 



249 



under such conditions. If there be a crust, 

 even though the snow is not remarkably deep, 

 the labor of the moose is vastly increased, as 

 it breaks through at every step, cutting its 

 legs and exhausting itself. A caribou, on the 

 other hand, will go across a crust as well as a 

 man on snow-shoes, and can never be caught 

 by the latter, save under altogether excep- 

 tional conditions of snowfall and thaw. 



"Crusting," or following game on snow- 

 shoes, is, as the name implies, almost always 

 practised after the middle of February, when 

 thaws begin, and the snow crusts on top. 

 The conditions for success in crusting moose 

 and deer are very different. A crust through 

 which a moose would break at every stride 

 may carry a running deer without mishap ; 

 while the former animal would trot at ease 

 through drifts in which the latter would be 

 caught as if in a quicksand. 



Hunting moose on snow, therefore, may be, 

 and very often is, mere butchery; and be- 

 cause of this possibility or probability, and 

 also because of the fact that it is by far the 

 most destructive kind of hunting, and is car- 

 ried on at a season when the bulls are horn- 

 less and the cows heavy with calf, it is rigidly 

 and properly forbidden wherever there are 

 good game-laws. Yet this kind of hunting 

 may also be carried on under circumstances 

 which render it if not a legitimate, yet a most 

 exciting and manly sport, only to be followed 

 by men of tried courage, hardihood, and skill. 

 This is not because it ever necessitates any 

 skill whatever in the use of the rifle, or any 

 particular knowledge of hunting-craft ; but 



