158 THROUGH THE MACKENZIE BASm 



larger lakes of the JSTorth. As moose have since been found 

 more or less plentiful in the eastern, western, and southern 

 sections of territory, where for many years previously they 

 were rather rare, or conspicuous by their absence, it is now 

 supposed by some observing natives and others that consider- 

 able numbers of them must have migrated southward, par- 

 ticularly during the remarkably mild winter of 1877-78. 

 Be that as it may, it has been noticed that at intervals, and 

 for several years at a time, this animal has been rather 

 scarce in various sections where it had formerly been fairly 

 abundant. It is easily scared, and no doubt much hunting 

 ultimately succeeds in driving it away to distant and less 

 accessible retreats. Previous to the establishment of Eort 

 Anderson, in 1861, moose were frequently seen by us on our 

 annual winter trade trips from Eort Good Hope to (the 

 Eskimos of) Liverpool Bay, feeding along the high sloping 

 banks of the Anderson Biver, but they soon after diminished 

 in numbers, and had already become somewhat difficult to 

 discover when the post was abandoned, in 1866. They are, 

 however, to be found sparsely there to the very edge of the 

 wooded country, especially in sheltered river valleys. Traces 

 were observed by us near the Wilmot Horton River in the 

 Barren Grovmds, in about latitude 6,9° north and longitude 

 126° 30' west. I may also mention that on my way back 

 from a visit made to Anderson River in July, 1860, I came 

 across and travelled through a veritable moose preserve of 

 some extent, which lay between the usual hunting grounds 

 of the Loucheux of Peel River and the Hare Indians of 

 Fort Good Hope. Several moose were seen and one shot, 

 while traces of them were very numerous. It was also the 

 resort of many black bears and woodland caribou. Again, 

 for nearly a decade subsequent to 1865 (in that year Eort 

 Nelson, which, with all its inmates, had been utterly de- 

 stroyed by the Indians in 1813, was re-established, near its 

 former site on the eastern branch of the Liard River), moose 

 were much more abundant in the adjacent coitntry than they 



