THE MOOSE 23 



with their fore-feet, not straight out as a horse 

 sometimes strikes, but first lifting the hoof 

 almost perpendicularly above their head and 

 then cutting forward and down, a blow that 

 would tear a man nearly in two. A large bull 

 generally weighs one thousand pounds, and they 

 are sometimes killed weighing from twelve 

 hundred to fifteen hundred pounds. 



The moose is a local race of the elk of 

 Northern Europe. Unlike other animals that 

 live in these Northern temperatures it does not 

 change its coat in winter to blend with Nature's 

 garb as do the caribou, Virginian deer, etc. 



Mr. J. Rowan thus describes the introduction 

 to a battle between two bull moose : 



* c I was calling in a little barren or open space 

 in the woods, and during a quarter of an hour of 

 breathless suspense I could hear two bulls ad- 

 vancing towards me from different directions, 

 and both so near that it was a toss-up which 

 would come first. At last one fellow came 

 out into the open, and stood defiantly awaiting 

 the approach of his rival, whom he could 

 plainly hear rampaging through the neighbour- 

 ing thicket." On another occasion he writes : 

 "A wounded bull charged me repeatedly, in 



