364 ON THE HABITS OF MOOSE, 



Mr. Louis Hamel, Postmaster at Mine Centre, Ontario, to whom my 

 Indian sells furs. He said that, early in the winter, Billy, having 

 gone up the river where we counted so many moose last spring, 

 saw some twenty of them frozen in the ice. Evidently they had 

 tried to cross too early and had broken through. Perhaps no one 

 moose would have misjudged the strength of the ice for his own 

 weight ; but it is rare for such large numbers to travel together. 

 Like men, som.etimes, on a stage, they had forgotten to reckon the 

 combined pressure. 



Such accidents, happily, are rare. There can be no doubt that ■ 

 moose are plentiful in all parts of the vast Rainy La,ke District ; 

 for, though one may travel several days or more without seeing 

 the animals themselves, the signs are everywhere. If one forgets, 

 however, that the moose tend to congregate in certain favourite 

 feeding-grounds, it is easy from various record tallies to over- 

 estimate their total number. It is true that I saw 44 in one day 

 during the fly-season ; but, on the other hand, during five months ' 

 travel the previous year, I had never seen more in a single day 

 than eight. 



If moose were once before plentiful in this region long ago, as 

 some people suppose, there is no certainty that the present 

 conditions are permanent. Whatever swept them away before, 

 whether wolves, or men, or pestilence, tukj recvir. One thing seems 

 sure — year by year they are pushing farther north towai-d the edge 

 of Hudson Bay. Perhaps in time by this very movement their 

 southern range will be deserted ; but more likely they are 

 merely recovering old ground by force of expanding numbers. 

 "Wolves in the Rainy Lake District are still scarce, the Indians 

 cannot return, and the shooting-season — perhaps vinnecessarily 

 late — comes at a time (Nov. Lst to 15th) when the danger of 

 freezing lakes keeps sportsmen close to the settlements. All these 

 safeguards together with the ideal character of the country — its 

 innumerable lakes and rivers and its abundant food-supply — seem 

 almost to ensure the perpetuation of this noblest of Amei^ican 

 game animals. 



In the very heart of the region, too, Ontario and Minnesota 

 have wisely set aside contiguous tracts of more thaii 3500 square 

 miles, where the moose are protected for all time. Thus, even with 

 the inevitable increase in shooting, and the probable establishment 

 of an earlier open season, the prospects for the future are auspicious. 

 It is a pleasant and notewoi'thy coincidence that that animal 

 which writers invariably describe as " prehistoric-looking" should 

 have proA'ed among the ablest in modei-n times to hold its own. 



