THE MOOSE 29 



verdure, which in the winter is the feeding- 

 ground of hundreds of moose. It was into this 

 inviting camp that we stumbled long after dark, 

 scaring a little moose out of the small clear- 

 ing, not 200 ft. from the cabin door. The 

 frost came down and cracked the trees that 

 night till they popped with the cold, and the 

 sound was like a skirmish of rifles. The 

 next morning when we awoke there was a 

 thin glaze on the snow, and when we walked 

 abroad it was like treading on innumerable panes 

 of crackling window-glass. We heard three 

 different moose get up and run when we were 

 a quarter of a mile off. . . . We climbed the 

 mountain for an hour. Then we came to the 

 tracks of two moose, fresh that very morning. 

 The footprints were not extra large, but the 

 broken twigs on two trees showed where a pair 

 of antlers had scraped on either side, and I could 

 scarcely touch the two trees at one time with 

 my outstretched hands. Moose with big horns 

 do not always have large hoofs. 



" ' They lie down about this time in the morn- 

 ing ' said my guide, . . . and after a while, over 

 the top of a fallen tree-trunk, I saw the mane 

 of a great, black animal. The old fellow had 



