THE MOOSE, OR ELK. 85 



by their immense and compact necks, is heard to a great dis- 

 tance, like the report of a gun on a still autumnal evening. 

 They probably approach from different directions, regardless 

 of the rugged ground, the rocks, and fallen trees in their 

 course, bellowing loudly, and tearing up the ground with their 

 horns. Now they catch sight of each other, and rush together 



like two cjladiators. Now butting for some time till their ant- 

 es o 



lers become interlocked, perhaps both fall struggling to the 

 ground. Frequently portions of skeletons, the skulls united 

 by firmly-locked antlers, have been found in some wilderness 

 arena, where a deadly light has occurred. A magnificent 

 pair of horns thus interlocked is to be seen in the Museum of* 

 the Royal College of Surgeons. Terrible must have been the 

 fate of the combatants, illustrating Byron's lines : — 



" Friends meet to part ; 

 Love laughs at faitli : 

 True foes once met, 

 Are joined till death. " 



Captain Hardy says he has twice heai'd the strange sound 

 emitted by the moose, which, till he became acquainted with 

 its origin, was almost appalling. It is a deep, hoai-se, and 

 prolonged bellow, more resembling a feline than a bovine roar. 

 Sometimes the ear of the hunter is assailed by a tremendous 

 clatter from some distant swamp or burned wood. It is the 

 moose, defiantly sweeping the forest of pines right and left 

 among the brittle Ijranches of the ram pikes, as the scaled 

 pines hardened by fire are locally tenned. When, however, 

 the moose wishes to beat a retreat in silence, his suspicions 

 being aroused, he effects the process with marvellous stealth. 

 Not a branch is heard to snap, and the horns are so carefully 

 carried through the densest thickets, that a rabbit would 



