IN THE LAND OF THE GREAT SPIRIT 135 



from a note-book half the birds and animals met 

 with even in a single day. But I think perhaps some 

 little account of the principal creature we have come 

 out to hunt should not be quite left out. I cannot 

 pretend for a moment that all that follows is the 

 immediate outcome of my own observation. But I 

 think I shall not be found to have stated anything 

 here that is not well ascertained as fact. Statements 

 by the Indians, reports of other hunters, written 

 accounts which I believe to be reliable, and my 

 own observation — these are the sources from which 

 the following is drawn. 



The moose* is by far the largest of all the family of 

 the deer. A big bull will measure at the shoulder 72 

 inches, or, as we should say of a horse, 18 hands. I ^*^4* 



have never had one weighed, but I have seen it stated 

 somewhere that such an enormous weight as twelve /^^oo-dhs 

 hundred pounds is not unknown, and I can quite 

 believe it. Well, that is more than eighty stone, or, P 

 speaking generally, about four times the weight of a l__ 

 fine Highland stag. Readers of Gilbert White will 

 remember how greatly he was struck by the length of 

 the leg (of the tibia especially), the shortness of the 



* Alces Americanus. 





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