BIG GAME OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 105 



own under reasonable game laws, without any special measures of 

 protection. 



The largest of all deer, the moose, is similarly in little 

 **'"'®" danger of extinction at present. The moose is not a 



characteristic mountain animal. It is an animal of the 

 great northern forest, is never found out on dry, open plains, but is 

 essentially a forest animal, and is particularly at home in dense coni- 

 ferous forests which are interspersed with muskegs, sloughs and grass- 

 bordered lakes and ponds. As an element in the fauna of the Canadian 

 Rockies, it is of very little importance. Moose are found over a large 

 part of British Columbia, becoming more abundant in the north, and 

 occur on the East slope in fair abundance north of the Clearwater 

 river. In the south, only a very few are known to range across the 

 boundary from the Glacier National park. The moose is a browsing 

 animal, and, where abundant, is very destructive to forests. It has 

 few natural enemies and can generally find an abundance of food, so 

 that, although it is not a very difficult animal to hunt, it is not likely 

 to disappear rapidly, even in those sections where it is almost the only 

 big game available. Further, the experience of Maine and New 

 Brunswick demonstrate the ease with which moose, with reasonable 

 protection, may be maintained in large numbers in suitable regions. 



The most abundant of all the big game of the Canadian 

 GMt"*^'" Rockies is probably the mountain goat. This is an 



animal of such striking peculiarity of appearance and 

 habits, and so unique among the big game of the world that anything 

 threatening the existence of the species should be viewed with the 

 utmost concern. Fortunately, the immediate future of the Rocky 

 Mountain goat in Canada presents no reason for alarm, but the great 

 diminution that has taken place in this species over the whole of its 

 former range in the States proves that it is not safe against destruction 

 because of any characteristic of its own. The mountain goat has, 

 however, several characteristics that favour a long and successful 

 resistance to extermination in the Canadian Rockies. In the first 

 place, the mountains of British Columbia are its natural home and 

 the region of its greatest abundance. It occurs throughout the entire 

 province and northward through Alaska, almost to the Arctic ocean. It 

 is everywhere present along the East slope in numbers that it would be 

 difficult to estimate, but certainly well up in the thousands. Although 

 quite frequently confused in the popular mind with the mountain 

 sheep, the goat has nothing in common with the sheep as regards 

 appearance and very little as regards habits or range. It is found 



