HABIT AND DOMESTICATION. QT7 
will attack an enemy or defend themselves under circumstances, 
when they would only think of escape at other seasons. 
The female also loses her timidity sometimes, and becomes 
courageous and even desperate in defense of her young. Mr. 
Gilpin, son of Dr. Gilpin, of Halifax, once met one when hunting 
small game, that charged him ‘on sight, most furiously, but he 
had the presence of mind to meet the charge with his fowling 
piece, and severed her windpipe with a charge of shot. Her 
fawn was too young to escape, and in her maternal solicitude 
she forgot her fears of even her most dreaded enemy. 
These deer are less migratory than the caribou, and so con- 
fine their range to more limited areas, nor are they so easily 
driven away from their usual haunts by the encroachments of 
the white settler. Though very wary and ever on the look-out 
for an enemy, they will listen with complacency to the distant 
sound of the woodman’s axe, the rumbling of the railroad train, or 
the sound of the whistle of the engine, without being driven to 
another country, or even being much disturbed. 
The Moose has often been reared and tamed in this country ; 
but I know of no systematic attempt to domesticate them, nor 
have I ever heard of their breeding in domestication. They 
have been sometimes broken to the harness and proved them- 
selves able to draw good loads; and yet I know of no regular 
effort that has been made to reduce them to servitude. When 
tamed, they are reasonably docile, except the males during the 
rutting season, when, as might be suspected, they become fero- 
cious, and should be kept in close quarters where they can do no 
harm. If castrated young, and early taught obedience to man, 
we may not doubt that they would readily submit to his domin- 
ion, and their great strength would give promise of useful beasts of 
draught, especially in countries where deep snows prevail, through 
which they pass with facility where ordinary cattle could make no 
progress. 
Of his European brother, Louis Figuier, in * Mammalia,” says: 
“The elk when caught young may be completely tamed with- 
out difficulty. It recognizes the person who takes care of it and 
will follow him like a dog, manifesting considerable joy on see- 
ing him after a separation. It goes in harness as well as a rein- 
deer, and can thus perform long journeys. For two or three 
centuries it was used for this purpose in Sweden, but the custom 
is now given up.” If in this the learned author is not mistaken, 
then the Swedish Elk at that time must have been bred in do- 
