4-i6 



The National Geographic Magazine 



gerous when the great weight of the ani- 

 mal is considered, and if you can't 

 swim, don't try it at all. 



Another mistake equally common about 

 the moose is its dangerous character in 

 the fall, and in support of this hundreds 

 of articles have been written, many of 

 them by honest, well-meaning, sportsmen, 

 usually of somewhat limited experience, 

 describing their narrow escape from the 

 sudden charges of these big animals when 

 fired upon. The explanation is an easy 

 one. When the moose is suddenly shot 

 at from behind by an unseen hunter and 

 unwounded, the animal almost invariably 

 takes its back track, thus bringing it fre- 

 quently face to face with the surprised 

 hunter, who may or may not then suc- 

 ceed in shooting it down; and when a 

 moose is fatally hurt, or very badly 

 wounded by the shot from an unobserved 

 hunter in front of the animal, it generally 

 rushes madly forward twenty-five yards 

 or more in the agony of its unexpected 

 injury, and thus, once more, the animal 

 is brought down upon the hunter with a 

 suddenness that is somewhat terrifying to 

 those who see in its glaring eyes an over- 

 powering desire for revenge. In either 

 case the animal has every appearance of 

 charging the shooter, and hence the tales 

 of the tenderfoot. 



Then again there is a disposition 

 among some to regard the bull moose as 

 particularly dangerous in the mating sea- 

 son, even when not shot at. True, he is 

 then more indifferent to his safety, but 

 because in some remote forest his fever- 

 ish eyes mistake the distant and skulking 

 figure of a man for a lady-love or rival, 

 and with a bellow he approaches, it is 

 easy to understand how some persons 

 purposely or ignorantly interpret such 

 impetuosity as a desire on the part of 

 the animal to give combat to his most 

 feared and deadly enemy — man — when, 

 as a matter of fact, just one faint whiff 

 of the human body will send the biggest 

 bull into headlong flight, his massive 

 body quivering with fear. 



INCREASE OF MOOSE IN NEW BRUNSWICK 

 DUE TO WISE GAME LAWS 



The moose of New Brunswick were 

 extremely scarce prior to 1885, but with 



the gradual disappearance of the Indian 

 trapper and hide hunter and the contin- 

 uous migration of hundreds of these ani- 

 mals across the Maine border and the 

 passage of effective game laws, this 

 noble animal is now more widely dis- 

 tributed and is more abundant in New 

 Brunswick than in any given area of 

 equal size on the American continent. 



No cows or calves can be legally 

 killed, with the result that thousands of 

 females now form great breeding herds 

 capable of more than supplying the pres- 

 ent destruction of the bull and adding 

 many more each year to the permanent 

 breeding stock. 



With the restoration of the moose 

 came the white-tail deer of Maine, and 

 they likewise are most abundant, saving 

 many a big moose or caribou that would 

 otherwise be sacrificed to meet the tem- 

 porary needs of the pot-hunter or trap- 

 per. The caribou are also plentiful, 

 whereas in Maine there are now few or 

 none. 



As an example of practical game pro- 

 tection, where the producing animals are 

 carefully protected and the increment 

 made the basis of a restricted killing, we 

 find a splendid example of good judg- 

 ment and concurrent rewards. Shall 

 we, in this country, continue to ignore 

 the rules of common sense, improvident 

 for those of today and regardless of 

 those to come? 



A DIGRESSION ON SAVAGE BEASTS 



At this point I cannot avoid a digres- 

 sion. The almost daily reiterated re- 

 ports of the "man chasing and devour- 

 ing" wolf, the "fierce" lynx, the "savage" 

 bear, the "terrible" cougar, the "revenge- 

 ful" bull moose excite wonderment; for 

 in my humble judgment all such blood- 

 curdling attributes are unfounded and 

 mendacious in nearly every particular. 

 However great the perils of the African 

 jungle, the situation in this country is 

 entirely different. After a personal ex- 

 perience of more than thirty-five years in 

 the American wilderness, from the Gulf 

 of Mexico to the Hudson Bay waters, 

 and especially throughout the range of 

 these particular animals, and after an 

 almost continuous investigation from 



