THE MOOSE 21 



forcing the opposing head aside, and a mighty 

 spring of his crouching haunches finished the 

 work. The second bull went over with a plunge 

 like a bolt-struck pine. As he rolled up to his 

 feet again the savage old bull jumped for him, 

 and drove the brown antlers into his flanks. The 

 next moment both bulls had crashed away into the 

 woods, one swinging off in giant strides through 

 the cracking under-brush for his life, the other 

 close behind, charging like a battering-ram into 

 his enemy's rear, grunting like a huge wild boar 

 in his rage and exultation. So the chase vanished 

 over the ridge into the valley beyond; and silence 

 stole back, like a Chinese empress, into her 

 disturbed dominions." 



A deer when started by a hunter, or driven 

 by hounds, usually returns in a few days to 

 the hill or mountain-side where he was first 

 found ; but a moose when thoroughly alarmed 

 will start on a long, swinging walk, and, taking 

 with him his entire family, leave for good. 

 Moose-signs are unmistakable, and the marks 

 where they have yarded show for years. The 

 moose, while totally lacking the grace and ease 

 of the movement of the deer, is appallingly grand 

 as he stands swinging his immense antlers like 



