72 FOEEST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



meadow hay stacked by the settlers back in the woods is 

 never touched by moose, though I have seen them eat 

 hay when taken young and brought up in captivity. A 

 young one in my possession would also graze on grass, 

 which, vainly endeavouring to crop by widely straddling 

 with the forelegs he would finally drop on his knees to 

 eat, and thus would advance a step or two to reach 

 further, and in a most ludicrous manner. 



To get at the foliage out of reach of his mouffle the 

 animal resorts to the practice of riding down young 

 trees, as shown in the accompanying woodcut. 



The teeth of the moose are arranged according to the 

 dental formula of all ruminants, though I once saw a 

 lower jaw containing nine perfect incisors. The crown 

 of the molar is deeply cleft, and the edges of the enamel 

 surrounding the cutting surfaces very sharp and hard as 

 adamant — beautifully adapted to reduce the coarse 

 sapless branches on which it is sometimes compelled to 

 subsist in winter, when accumulated snows shut it out 

 from seeking more favourable feeding grounds. I have 

 often heard it asserted by Indian hunters that a large 

 stone is to be found in the stomach of every moose. 

 This, of course, is a fable ; but a few years since I was 

 given a calculus from a moose's stomach which I had 

 sawn in two. The concentric rings were well defined, 

 and were composed of radiating crystals like needles. The 

 nucleus was plainly a portion of a broken molar tooth 

 which the animal had swallowed. A short time after- 

 wards I obtained another bezoar taken from a moose. 

 The rings were fewer in number than in the preceding 

 case, but the nucleus was a very nearly perfect and entire 

 molar. 



