XI AWAY TO THE MOOSE-GROUND 207 



my opportunity of seeing something of the habits of these 

 animals by day. Telling Pitka to sit down and be prepared 

 for a long halt, I did likewise. 



The solitary cow soon began browsing on the young 

 shoots, and when tired of feeding proceeded to lie down. 

 Before doing so she took a quick run in a semicircle and then 

 lay. This manoeuvre she repeated several times after getting 

 up and browsing a short time in various places. The flies 

 were very bad around the animals, and it was curious to see 

 their great ears working backwards and forwards in the 

 endeavour to keep the pests away. The little calves seemed 

 to be particularly worried by them, and kept dashing through 

 the bushes in a circle round their mothers. Occasionally the 

 noise they made would startle the solitary cow and the 

 young bull, both of which would then jump up and run a 

 short distance, turning to look back and sniff the air for 

 danger. It was here I first observed that a moose when 

 startled nearly always runs in a semicircle, so as to get to 

 leeward of the spot whence the noise comes, and thus satisfy 

 itself by means of its marvellous power of smell as to the cause 

 of all the trouble. From about 1 1 a.m. until 3 p.m. the moose 

 did not move very far, and spent the greater part of the time 

 lying down. Afterwards they began to move off, slowly 

 feeding their way out of my sight and into the denser forest. 

 I enjoyed the few hours spent watching them, and nothing 

 would induce me to shoot at any of them, although Pitka 

 thought I was temporarily mad, and kept saying, " You shoot 

 one, plenty good meat there, you bet." We returned to 

 camp without seeing anything more. Glyn had failed to see 

 a beast all day. 



After this we hit upon a series of blank days, and oh the 

 weariness of that endless crawling about over fallen logs. 



