362 MR. E. C. OBERHOLTZER ON 



flies, sometimes to let the water lam out, and almost invariably 

 when the moose is either apprehensive or at bay. A cow with 

 twin calves, which I photographed last spiing, lowered her ears 

 when she began to feel uneasy about our presence. We were 

 only thirty feet away. At first she seemed not to mind ; but 

 the repea,ted click of the shutter alarmed her. She appeared 

 to be wavering between friendliness and defiance. And I have 

 obsei"ved the same behaviour repeatedly under similar conditions. 



Indeed, the moose seems to be an animal of mixed emotions. 

 Unlike the "White-tailed Deer, he seldom bounds away at first 

 sight of man. He will have a good second look unless there is im- 

 mediate danger. Curiosity or indolence, or even friendliness (and 

 I really believe in the last motive), frequently holds him until he 

 has had proof of evil intentions. Often, having crept up stealthily 

 upon a moose either by canoe or throvigh the bush, I have been 

 aniused to find that he was watching me Avide-eyed all the time. 

 How often too, while the ca,noe passed, I have seen them peering 

 out unalarmed from behind their ambush. And certainly the 

 more they see of men without suflfei-ing injury, the more careless 

 they become. Passing up and down the same eight-mile stretch 

 of liver at least once a day, last June, I was svirprised at the 

 change that occurred in a week. At first I could never get 

 nearer than a hundred yards. We always went quietly and with as 

 few motions as possible, and we never pursued an animal that had 

 taken fright. At the end of the Aveek hardly one of them would 

 budge until we were within seventy-five feet ; and if we returned 

 half an hour later, there they were again in the water. »Some of 

 them never left, unless we turned toward them. 



When we frightened tiiem, it was either by unusual noises, 

 sudden movements, the scent of our bodies, or above all by the 

 sound of the human voice. No clovibt, experience of the gun 

 changes the order ; the scent then becomes of first importance. 

 I believe, though, that there is nothing alarming in the scent itself 

 except as it is novel or as it recalls deadly memories. The cow 

 and calves of which I spoke above may not have scented us, for 

 there was a slight breeze in our favour. With the yoimg bull in 

 the water and the other bull and cow calf it was different. In 

 the former case the breeze blew straight away from us ; in the 

 latter there was no perceptible breeze at all, but it would be idle 

 to question the powers of a snifiing bull at from 1 5 to 20 feet. It is 

 only the human voice, so far as I can discover, that never fails 

 the first time to caiase a panic. Whenever otherwise we were 

 admitted to the closest intimacy, it broke the spell at the first 

 word. There seems to be something unearthly about it that 

 jangles the moose to the very heart. 



A peculiar feature of the moose is the bell. Mr. E. T. Seton, 

 in his memorable ' Life Histories of JSTorthern Animals,' cites a 

 bell 18 inches long as unusual. For aii average of all moose, 

 young and old, it certainly is ; but, without actual measurements, 

 I have a strong impression nevertheless that for bviUs of three, 



