THE ALCINE DEER OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLDS. 81 



hills in search of cariboo. Not caring to kill moose we 

 left it ; but shortly after the track was taken up and 

 followed on light new-fallen snow by a settler. Having 

 started the animal once or twice without getting a shot, 

 he followed its track to the edge of a little round pond 

 in the woods whence he could not find an exit of the 

 trail. Sitting down to smoke his pipe before giving it 

 up to return, his gun left against a tree at some distance, 

 he was astonished to see the animal's head appear above 

 the surface in the middle of the pond. On jumping up, 

 the moose quickly made for the opposite shore, and, 

 emerging from the water, regained the shelter of the 

 forest ere he could get round in time for a shot. The 

 Indians have a tradition that the moose originally came 

 from the sea, and that in times of great persecution, some 

 half-century since, when no moose tracks could be found 

 in the Nova Scotian woods, they resorted to the salt 

 water, and left for other lands. An old hunter, now 

 dead, told me he was present when his father shot the 

 first moose that had been seen since their return ; that 

 great were the rejoicings of the Indians on the occasion, 

 and that two were shot on the beach by a settler who 

 had seen them swimming for shore from open water in 

 the Bay of Fundy. I can vouch for an instance of a 

 moose, when hunted, taking to the sea and swimming off 

 to an island considerably over a mile from the mainland. 

 Such tales are evidently intimately connected with the 

 powers of the animal in the water, in which, as has been 

 previously stated, it passes much of its existence during 

 the hot weather. A similar hunter's story to the one 

 related above is quoted by Mr. Gosse in the " Canadian 

 Naturahst." 



