38 With Rod and Gun in New England 



" That seems to me like too much hard work to be called sport," said 

 the Judge. " I suppose there are some who like it, but I prefer taking my 

 sport with less exertion." 



" A good many moose are caught in snares," said Hiram, who with 

 the other two guides were lying in front of our tent listening to our conver- 

 sation. " Do ye remember, William, the moose we found rotten in a snare 

 last year ? Sure 'twas a shame to have the big brute wasted." 



"Yes, I well remember it," replied William; 'tis a poacher's way, 

 surely, and it 's a villanous way, too. The snare is made of a strong rope 

 which is fastened to a large spring-up sapling in the places where Mr. 

 Moose goes, and the leg of the animal is caught, and unless the poacher 

 comes to kill it, the unfort'nit beast dies of starvation entirely. Sure I 've 

 seen where the moose had devoured every sort of food that was within its 

 reach, even the bark and wood of trees." 



" Yes, 't is a blasted shame that the beggars will act so," added 

 Hiram ; " the same fellows will net and spear every salmon they can in the 

 rivers, summers; sure they're a great plague." 



" Yes, Hiram," said the Doctor, " they 're bad men, but there are bad 

 men everywhere." 



" Moose ugly varmint, sometimes," said Francois ; " urn chase horse 

 and wagon long ways up the Restigouche last year." 



" Yes," replied the Doctor, " though ordinarily one of the most shy 

 and difficult of approach of any of the denizens of the forest, the moose 

 sometimes, particularly in the rutting season, attacks other animals, even 

 man, without the slightest provocation, and the viciousness with which it 

 handles its immense weapons and strikes and kicks with its fore and hind 

 feet is impossible of description ; and lucky, indeed, is the object of his 

 malevolence which escapes without serious injury. I have known of several 

 of these occurrences. On one occasion I examined a two years' old steer 

 which had been thus attacked, and a more complete wreck could hardly be 

 imagined. It was cut and torn in numberless places, one fore leg was dis- 

 located, and it was almost disembowelled. It is needless to state that it 

 was necessary to butcher the poor beast. 



" The moose on such occasions seems to be attacked with a kind of 

 phrensy, for its savage actions cannot be accounted for in any other 

 manner." 



"I have always questioned the accuracy of the stories which are 

 printed in the papers every year about enormous moose being killed, 

 weighing all the way from twelve to eighteen hundred pounds," said the 

 Judge. 



" Yes," replied the Doctor, " undoubtedly exaggerated accounts of the 

 great size of moose which have been killed have been published. There 



