CHAPTER X 



THE EFFECT OF AGE ON WILD ANIMALS 

 "Youth must ever be served." 



ANIMAL life has some strange phases. 

 This is seen in studying the habits of the 

 elk, the moose, the caribou, and the mountain 

 ram. 



Some years ago there was a famous moose 

 on the headwaters of the Tobique River in 

 Upper New Brunswick. He was an old 

 moose that had been frequently shot at, and 

 therefore he was more than ordinarily sus- 

 picious and cautious in his travels. On ac- 

 count of his age his hoofs were long and 

 ragged, that is broken off at the sides, with 

 portions entirely wanting. As an old man's 

 finger nails and toe nails will break and 

 crack and chip off, so will the hoofs of an old 

 moose. This one was known by the title of 

 "The Big Moose of the Little Tobique/' In 

 soft spots, in muddy or clayey ground, his 

 tracks showed up so large that the hunters 

 could not believe that they belonged to a 



