MAMMALIA. 235, 
bone of a deer, and by whistling, which, deceiving the male, he blindly hastens to the 
spot, to assail his supposed rival. If the hunter fails in giving it a mortal wound as 
it approaches, he shelters himself from its fury behind a tree ; and I have heard of 
several instances in which the enraged animal has completely stripped the bark 
from the trunk of a large tree, by striking with its fore-feet. In the spring time, 
when the snow is very deep, the hunters frequently run down the moose on snow- 
shoes. An instance is recorded in the narrative of Captain Franklin’s second 
journey, where three hunters pursued a moose-deer for four successive days, until 
the footsteps of the chace were marked with blood, although they had not yet got 
a view of it. At this period of the pursuit the principal hunter had the misfortune 
to sprain his ankle, and the two others were tired out; but one of them, 
having rested for twelve hours, set out again, and succeeded in killing the 
animal, after a further pursuit of two days’ continuance. Notwithstanding the 
lengthened chase which the moose can sustain, when pursued on the snow, 
Hearne remarks that it is both tender-footed and short-winded; and _ that, 
were it found in a country free from underwood, and dry under foot, it would 
become an easy prey to horsemen and dogs. The same author informs us, that 
in the summer moose-deer are often killed in the water by the Indians, who have 
the fortune to surprise them while they are crossing rivers or lakes, and that at 
such times they are the most inoffensive of animals, never making any resistance. 
“The young ones, in particular,” says he, “‘ are so simple, that I remember to 
have seen an Indian paddle his canoe up to one of them, and take it by the poll, 
without experiencing the least opposition ; the poor, harmless animal seeming, at 
the same time, as contented alongside the canoe, as if swimming by the side of its 
dam, and looking up in our faces with the same fearless innocence that a house- 
lamb would, making use of its fore-foot almost every instant, to clear its eyes of 
mosquitoes, which at that time were remarkably numerous. The moose is the 
easiest to tame and domesticate of any of the deer kind.” 
With respect to the food of the moose, the same traveller says, “‘ Their legs are 
so long, and their necks so short, that they cannot graze on the level ground like 
other animals, but are obliged to browze on the tops of large plants and the 
leaves of trees in the summer, and in winter they always feed on the tops of 
willows and the small branches of the birch tree, on which account they are never 
found during that season but in such places as can afford them a plentiful supply 
of their favourite food ; and although they have no fore-teeth in the upper jaw, yet 
T-have often seen willows and small birch trees cropped by them in the same 
manner as if they had been cut by a gardener’s shears, though some of them were 
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