THE MOOSE DEEB. 4:9 



apparatus, for the bull Moose lights principally with his 

 huge, deeply-cloven hoofs, which he handles with great 

 dexterity, and with which he can inflict very heavy 

 bjows. They often weigh from fifty-six to sixty pounds 

 the pair, and present a flat palmated surface, intersected 

 upwardly by irregular ribs or ridges, each terminating 

 in a short snag or rounded point, one of which is added 

 every year until they attain their- full stature. The 

 weight of these is enormous, and accordingly when the 

 animal runs, which he does at a heavy, awkward, 

 shambling trot, he thrusts his nose high into the air, 

 with his short, sturdy neck pointed upward, so that the 

 horns are rested in some degree upon the back, partly it 

 may be supposed for the purpose of support, and partly 

 to avoid entanglement among the branches and thick-set 

 stems of the cedar-swamps which they most frequent. 

 These horns they shed annually in the spring of the 

 year, and annually renew, the surface being covered 

 with a soft velvet-like fungus, while they are young and 

 tender, and gaining hardness and consistency till in the 

 rutting season, which occurs in the latter summer and early 

 autumn, they are perfect in size and formidable as wea- 

 pons of offence. At this period the bulls may be heard 

 roaring and bellowing throughout the mountain gorges of 

 the ranges which they frequent, in the evening espe- 

 cially, and in the early gray of dawn, and when they hear 

 the lowing of the cows they come crashing through the 

 forests with fierce and amorous heat ; and if two rival 

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