Moose-Huiiti)ig. 



157 



RIDING DOWN A TREE. 



brain long before the unwary hunter has the slightest idea that his 

 presence is suspected. When alarmed, this ponderous animal moves 

 away with the silence of death, carefully avoiding all obstructions, 

 and selecting the moss-carpeted bogs and swales, through which he 

 threads his way with a persistence that often sets at defiance all the 

 arts and endurance of even the practiced Indian hunter. 



Much has been said and written of the ungainly appearance of 

 the moose. Probably very few persons have seen the moose in his 

 wild state, — perhaps only after he has passed through the hands of 

 some unskilled taxidermist, whence he emerges, in most instances, 

 an animal fearfully and wonderfully made. No person who has seen 

 this noble animal in his native forests could fail to be impressed with 

 the majesty and grandeur of his appearance. A few years ago, I was 

 painting some tree studies near one of the numerous lakes in Char- 

 lotte County, New Brunswick, and for a long time I sat working in 

 utter silence, until my attention was attracted by a movement in the 

 branches, and presently a magnificent moose came out into the open, 

 and walked quietly down to a pond almost directly in front of me, 

 with his head erect and his broad antlers thrown back almost to his 



