MOOSE-HUNTING. 



By CHARLES C. WARD. 



IT is much to be regretted that a mammal of so much dignity 

 and importance as the American moose (Cervus A Ices — Linn. ; 

 Alee Americanus — Jardine) is fast disappearing from our forests. 

 Tardy legislation is doing something, it is true, for his protection, 

 and may probably prevent a repetition of such a scene as happened 

 on the Tobique River in the province of New Brunswick, several years 

 ago, when several hundred of these noble animals were slaughtered 

 for the sake of their hides, and their carcasses left to rot in the forest. 

 To the early settlers in the States of Maine, Vermont, and New 

 Hampshire, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the 

 flesh of the moose was the main-stay, and his hide furnished them 

 with serviceable clothing. At the present time, with the exception 

 of Maine, the moose are almost extinct in the Eastern States, and 

 they are becoming scarce in Nova Scotia. In New Brunswick, they 

 are seldom found on the rivers emptying into the Bay of Fundy, 

 where in former days they existed in vast numbers. They can yet 

 be found, however, in considerable numbers on the head-waters of 

 the Restigouche and Miramichi rivers and their branches ; in the 

 provinces of Quebec and Ontario south of the St. Lawrence ; in 

 the central parts of the county of Rimouski, and thence southward 

 along the borders of Maine, and all through the country south of 

 the city of Quebec to New Hampshire. In the county of Gaspe 

 they are extinct, having been exterminated by ruthless hunters for 

 the sake of their hides. North of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence 

 rivers, the moose ranges from Lake Wanapitiping nearly to the 

 Saguenay. Their northern limit is now somewhere near the water- 

 shed of Hudson Bay ; it was formerly beyond it. The western limit 

 is about the longitude of Lake Huron. None are now found north 



