68 SPORT INDEED 



too, has hers, and they are no less marked. The 

 senses of hearing and smell are believed to be keener 

 in the moose tribe than in any other animal, and yet I 

 have stood within a few feet of a cow-moose, seemingly 

 without her being aware of it. She was coming to- 

 ward me at the time, with her head down, and in a 

 careless sort of way that betokened unconsciousness 

 of danger. I stepped behind a tree. She stopped and 

 listened, drawing in volumes of air through her big 

 nostrils. I waited for a while and then pushed out from 

 my hiding-place and into her full view. She showed 

 neither fright nor surprise, but eyed me inquisitively 

 for a minute or two and then turned her steps leisurely 

 into the woods. Such demure equanimity, however, is 

 but an intermittent characteristic. In the mating 

 season all her artless composure seems to desert her, 

 and then, like her lord and master, with nostrils di- 

 lated and ears erect, she is ever on the qui vive for 

 danger. 



The instinct of the moose approaches closely to 

 human reason a fact which may be illustrated by an 

 incident that occurred during a violent October snow- 

 storm. A pair of moose were found standing in a 

 clearing near an old lumber camp, and by their tracks 

 it was noticed they had not stirred from the vicinity 

 of the camp since the storm started, on the day pre- 

 vious. Evidently they had been afraid of the falling 

 trees in the woods, which, from the weight of the 



