30 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMEKICA. 



hundred yards from the house as the place to make the 

 experiment. The rope was securely fastened to a cotton- 

 wood tree, and the noose was hung from small willows, 

 directly over the well-tramped trail, at such a height as to 

 allow the Moose to pass his head through and at the same 

 time to carry the lower part of the noose forward above his 

 knees till it caught him securely around the neck. The 

 first night rewarded the lucky trapper, inasmucli as the 

 success of his scheme was demonstrated. His work was 

 well done, but the game was too strong for the trap. The 

 rope, which would have held the strongest team of horses, 

 on a dead pull, was snapped by the Moose, and the fright- 

 ened beast ran over hills and j)lains, dragging the rope after 

 him. The mark it made was seen uj) and dov/n the valley, 

 wherever the trappers went, for a month. The Moose, in his 

 rounds of feeding, dragged the long rope through the water 

 and through the snow in turns, till it became a rope of ice 

 that made a track in the snow as if he were dragging a log. 

 It must have been a great burden for the Moose to pull 

 around, yet all winter the track was seen, where it crossed 

 and recrossed the Teton Basin. How the poor brute ever got 

 rid of his trade-mark, or whether he is still wearing it, no 

 one knows. It was a new rope, and would last him for years 

 if not unloaded by some lucky chance. 



The Clear Water River has its source in the heavy forests 

 of the Bitter Eoot Eange of mountains, and its many trib- 

 utaries drain the best feeding-grounds for the Moose to be 

 found in any part of our country. The gold-hunters, in 

 their excursions, pass through the silent wilderness, but 

 they go and come without disturbing the game. So rugged 

 are the rocky canons of these mountains that hunters sel- 

 dom penetrate to the region of the lakes along the summit, 

 and the Moose breed there year after year in comparative 

 safety. From these game-preserves the Moose never 

 migrate in winter in herds, as they do from the more bar- 

 ren regions farther south. There are no little valleys to 

 invite settlement high up in the Bitter Root Range, so the 

 encroachments are not so destructive to the game in these 



