68 THE DEER FAMILY 



it can only create confusion to call it by any other 

 name than moose.* 



Comparing the moose with the common deer, Grin- 

 nell says the very name Virginia deer is symbolical of 

 elegance and beauty of motion, while, on the other 

 hand, the moose is huge, ungainly, and in most of its 

 movements awkward. With a head more hideous than 

 that of a mule, a neck so short that it cannot reach the 

 ground, legs of immense length, and huge horns shaped 

 like coal-shovels, it is as far as possible from being 

 graceful or attractive. 



" But regard it with the hunter's eye, as, when 

 startled, it dashes along with swinging trot, crashing 

 through the forest and making the dead sticks snap and 

 fly in its impetuous career, taking in its stride, without 

 any apparent effort, the great, fallen logs that lie in its 

 course, and in a moment disappearing, shadow-like, 

 among the bare tree-trunks in the distance, and it will 

 be acknowledged that if not a graceful, it is at least a 

 grand, animal." 



The color of the moose varies from a light brown 

 to a dark Vandyke brown which appears almost 

 black. The Alaskan moose are said to be the dark- 

 est. They are the largest and have the finest antlers. 

 A magnificent moose-country is there now fairly ac- 

 cessible, and it is well that the Congress of the United 

 States has passed a good game-law for that territory, 

 which is referred to later. 



The moose has tremendous palmate and wide-spread- 

 ing horns. The bull, the first year, like the elk, has a 



* The Moose, in the Seventh Report of the New York State Forest, Fish, 

 and Game Commission. All is well, as Mr. Grant says, if we let this animal 

 have the name moose and call the others the American elk or wapiti. 



