DEFENSE AGAINST WOLVES 
and unconsciously making paths. Of course, this process is kept up every 
day, so that when the snow becomes very deep they have well-beaten roads 
running in every direction over quite a large territory. They have a very 
delicate way of eating, nibbling only a little at a time.” 
Mr. Stone tells us, however, that in the Northwest the snow does not 
pile up so deeply as along the Atlantic seaboard, and consequently the ani- 
mals remain in their favorite feeding grounds in the hills until the snow 
either from the winds or the warmth of a coming spring sun takes on a 
crust which will bear the wolf — the only enemy of moose beside man. 
‘‘When the snow is soft the wolf never troubles the moose, for well it knows 
this big deer is more than a match under such conditions; but when the 
wolf can run on top of the snow, the moose is at his mercy; a band of them 
will bring down the most powerful bull. Unlike the caribou, the moose 
is a heavy animal with small feet in proportion to its size, and they can never 
run on top of the snow. The wolves thoroughly understand this, and a 
band will systematically plan an attack and execute their plans with delib- 
eration. Surrounding the moose, some will attract its attention by jump- 
ing at its head, while others cut its hamstrings. To escape this danger, 
northern moose leave the hills in March and April and go down into the 
timber of the lowland, where the snow is yet soft.” 
Another flat-horned deer common to both continents is the 
reindeer, which we in America call ‘“‘caribou.”” It is peculiar 
among deer in its deeply-cleft and broad hoofs, in 
its hairy muzzle, in the shape of its antlers, and 
most of all in the fact that the females are as well antlered as the 
males. In the region where it lives it must fight wolves so 
incessantly that does as defenseless as are those of other deer 
could hardly survive; moreover, it is believed that the horns 
are of essential service as snow shovels in digging after winter 
forage. These suppositions are supported by the fact that the 
fawns get their antlers very young; and a further remarkable 
fact is, that whereas the old males shed their horns in the late 
fall the young bucks and the females retain theirs until spring. 
The strange, slender form and the curious, downward prolonga- 
tion of the brow and bez tines, often unequally, are shown in the 
accompanying portraits; also the fact that the horns spring 
319 
Reindeer. 
