314 Deer and Antelope of North America 



proud and dislikes the idea of expressing fear. 

 Watch it carefully, just as it rounds the hill and 

 realizes it is about passing out of your sight, it 

 will suddenly stop and give you one very short 

 look and then away with all the speed it possesses. 

 Though proud, the moose is full of fear, and feel- 

 ing now it is out of your sight, loses no time in 

 leaving you far behind. 



The moose cannot be considered cowardly or 

 timid, yet the instances are very rare where it has 

 been known to attack man. Although a large 

 and powerful animal it fears man, and always 

 avoids contact if possible. If cornered or seri- 

 ously wounded, it will sometimes show fight, — 

 most animals will do this, — but the hunter has 

 been injured much oftener by the common Vir- 

 ginia deer than by the moose. Near Fort Nor- 

 man on the Mackenzie, a few years ago, a wounded 

 bull charged and killed an Indian hunter who in his 

 effort to escape was held by his clothing catching 

 on a snag. Had the bull missed him in his first 

 charge he would not have renewed it; few wild 

 animals will return to a charge, failing in the first.^ 



I stopped three days at a trading post on the 

 Upper Liard River in the fall of 1897. The trader 



^ The sladang of the Malay Peninsula is about the only one which, 

 having missed on his first charge, will almost invariably return to 

 the attack ; but several species, notably the African buffalo, the 

 grizzly bear, the tiger, and the black^opard, may usually be de- 

 pended on to return to the attacji. — Editor. 



