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FORKHT LIKE IN AC'ADIK. 



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fact in the natural liiHtoiy of tho, C('rvina3 that 8Uoh an 

 instance niiiHt be rcganliMl as cxccptioiial. 'J'lic firHt two 

 or three days of Septeniher over, and the moose has 

 worked off tlie hist rafjff^ed strip of the deciduous skin 

 aj^ainat his favourite rubhiii<);-posts — the stems of young 

 hacmata(!k (hireli) and alder hushes, and with conscious 

 pride of condition and strength, with clean hard antlers 

 and massive neck, is ready to assert his claims against 

 all rivals. A nobler animal does not exist in the American 

 forest ; nor, whatever may have been asserted about his 

 ungainliness of gait and appearance, a form more entitled 

 to command adminition, calculated, indeed, on first being 

 '|f confronted with the forest giant, to produce a feeling of 



awe on the part of the young hunter. To hear his dis- 

 tant ci'ashings thiougli the woods, now and then drawing 

 his horns across the brittle l)ranchcs of dead timber as if 

 to intimidate the supposed rival, fand to see the great 

 black mass burst forth from the dense forest and stalk 

 majestically towards you on the open barren, is one of 

 the grandest sights that can be presented to a sports- 

 man's eyes in any quarter of the globe. His coat now 

 lies close, with a gloss reflecting the sun's rays like that 

 of a well-groomed horse. His prevailing colour, if in his 

 prime, is jet black, with beautiful golden-brown legs, and 

 flanks pale fawn. The swell of the muscle surrounding 

 the fore-arm is developed like the biceps of a prize- 

 fighter, and stands well out to the front. I have mea- 

 sured a fore-arm of a large moose over twenty inches in 

 circumference. The neck is nearly as round as a barrel, 

 and of immense thickness. The horns are of a light 

 yellowish white stained with chestnut patches ; the tines 

 rather darker ; and the base of the horn, with the lowest 



