THE MOOSE. 47 



pounds. He has a bristly mane about five inches in height, 

 and from a lump under the throat hangs a tuft of coarse 

 hair. The coat is very long, and so exceedingly brittle 

 that it breaks when bent. Except on the legs and belly, 

 where it is of a much lighter hue, it is of a varying ash 

 colour, having the extremities of the hairs tipped with 

 dark brown. The tail is very short, and is white on the 

 under side. In winter, unlike many other animals inha- 

 biting the higher latitudes — as the hare and the fox, which 

 at that season become as white as the snow on which they 

 move — the Moose assumes a much darker shade, the bull 

 being often nearly black, and consequently more conspi- 

 cuous to his enemies ; and this coat, which is not shed till 

 spring, is much longer and coarser than the summer one. 

 The horns of the young Moose are in their first year 

 only an inch high ; in the next they rise to a foot, and are 

 shaped somewhat like a large spear-head ; in the following 

 year they are forked ; in the fourth season they have six 

 snags, and at five years old are of triangular form, with 

 points on the external edges. In the mature animal the 

 points are sometimes thirty in number, and the antlers 

 frequently measure as much as six feet from tip to tip. 

 They are shed in January and February, and are so 

 rapidly developed again, that by the month of June they 

 are restored to their full size. The young males do not 

 lose theirs till spring, and they are in consepuence corre- 



