THE GIANT MOOSE 243 



cabin and surprised many a moose in the green woods. 

 A light snow fall and a damp wind had sent them to the 

 shelter of the big trees and we could hear the bulls brush- 

 ing their horns against the bushes on all sides of us. A 

 cow stood not twenty yards away and watched us 

 curiously until she got our wind and dashed off. About 

 four miles lower we crossed King County Creek, made a 

 lunching place in the canyon by brushing away the snow, 

 and came home early. The precipitation continued 

 steadily all afternoon and night and about five inches of 

 snow had fallen when dayHght came again. 



It was now clear, but the going was slippery in our 

 shoe pacs, especially when we had to place a foot on the 

 snow-covered trunk of a fallen tree. Nevertheless we 

 plodded along, starting off the same as the day before, 

 but travehng through the burned timber instead of fol- 

 lowing the green woods which led down the creek. Our 

 intention was to strike across the burned-over slopes to 

 reach the point where we had seen the four large bulls 

 four days previously. In doing this we came close to 

 many and saw altogether about the same number as we 

 had noted on the first days of our searching. One young 

 bull had one horn broken off short. A herd of about 

 thirty let us approach within a hundred yards without 

 taking fright and then scattered uphill away from us. 

 As we stood on the brow of a httle rise close to the spot 

 that we were aiming for, we saw a moose lying down. 

 He had the same Ught-colored skin and yellow antlers 

 that had marked the large bull of our first day's excur- 

 sion.: We approached closer and found that another was 

 lying near him. It was exceedingly difficult, once we 

 had left the ridge from which we had first seen them, to 

 locate the animals again. Despite standing upon fallen 



