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THE ALCINE DEER OF THE OLD AND NEAV WORLDS. 81 



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hills in search of ciiriboo. Not caring to kill moose wc '|i: 



'i ,1.. 



left it ; but shortly after the track was taken up and ijlp 



followed on light new-fallen snow by a settler. Having fit 



started the animal once or twice without getting a shot, ^ 



he followed its track to the edge of a little round jjond !|[,| 



in the woods whence he could not find an exit of the I't 



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trail. Sitting down to smoke his pipe before giving it ;.\ 



up to return, his gun left against a tree at some distance, 



he was astonished to see the animal's head appear above 



the surface in the middle of the pond. On jumping up, 



the moose (juickly made for the opposite shore, and, 



omeroinsj from the water, reuained the shelter of the 



forest ere he could get round in time for a shot. The 



Indians have a tradition that the moose originally came 



from the sea, and that in times of great persecution, some 



half-century since, when no moose tracks could be found 



in the Nova Scotian woods, they resorted to the salt 



water, and left for other lands. An old hunter, now 



dead, told me he was present when his fatlu^r shot the 



first moose that had been seen since their return ; that 



great were the rejoicings of the Indians on the occasion, 



and that two were shot on the beach by a, settler who 



had seen them swimming for shore from open water in 



the Bay of Fundy. I can vouch for an instance of a 



moose, when hunted, taking to the sea and swimming off 



to an island consideral)ly over a mile from the mainland. 



Such tales are evidently intimately connected with the 



pow(>rs of the animal in the water, in which, as has been • |j 



l)reviously stated, it passes much of its existence during f' 



the hot weather. A similar hunter's story to the oue 



rcslated above is quoted by ]\rr. Gosse in the " C'anadiau ! 



Naturalist." 



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