MOOSE-HUNTING IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 29 



other seasons, and amid different surroundings. We after- 

 ward noted, however, that the Moose, when driven from 

 his timbered mountain home to the valleys, where he 

 remained a few weeks, seemed to leave his shyness behind. 

 This characteristic' has been noted several times since. 

 There were forty Moose counted near our cabin that winter. 

 On one occasion, a bull Moose passed through Rexburg, 

 Idaho, a town of considerable size. He went on through 

 Elgin and other thickly settled neighborhoods. He was 

 followed by more than one hundred men, and killed without 

 more than the trouble necessary to butcher a beef steer. 



My conclusions are, from these seemingly-contradictory 

 traits of this animal, that he loses, to a great degree, the 

 sense of fear upon changing from the familiar haunts, where 

 he passes the greater part of his life, in the solitude of the 

 forest, to the scenes so different in the valleys, where the 

 marches of hunger enforce a temporary sojourn. During 

 the winter that I was the only householder in the Teton 

 Basin, the Moose became so familiar with the surroundings 

 that they passed around the house at night so closely that 

 we could hear them tramping in the snow, and their fresh 

 tracks were seen every morning within easy gunshot range 

 of the house. They became so tame that the trappers 

 often encountered them in their morning rounds, and they 

 made no effort to escape. 



They were feeding on the dry grass and willows along 

 the little river. They would wade in the water where it 

 splashed over the rocks and did not freeze, in search of the 

 sprigs of green water-plants and strings of moss that 

 trailed in the water below the submerged rocks. The Moose 

 would wade about when the cold wind blew, and icicles 

 would hang from their coarse, long hair in great white 

 spears. It is the delight of the Moose to paddle in the 

 water even in winter. 



One of our trappers, while time rested heavily on his 

 hands, in our camp on the Teton River, decided to try to 

 catch a Moose in a snare. He provided himself with a one 

 and a quarter inch manilla rope, and selected a trail a 



