THE VANISHING MOOSE. 



347 



of moose and elk found in the shell-heaps of 

 New Jersey show they formerly existed there. 

 At the first settlement of this country they 

 ranged throughout nearly the whole of New 

 England, and in New York as far south as the 

 Catskills. In Canada proper they are numerous, 

 but are going fast, in spite of the nominal pro- 

 tection of the law. They are still hunted in 

 Maine with success, but they have utterly van- 

 ished from what were once their favorite 

 haunts — the northern parts of New York and 

 Vermont. In 187 1 there were said to be some 

 in northern Vermont, and in the extreme north 

 of New Hampshire around the sources of Con- 

 necticut River there still maybe a few individ- 

 uals. Even as late as 1879, near the Second 

 Connecticut Lake, they were rather numerous, 

 and in 1884 five were killed at that place. The 

 following year some were there, and an old bull 

 was frequently seen, but was left undisturbed. 



DRAWN BY AUGUST WILL. 



At one time they pressed close to the Adan- 

 tic, for we read that a pair were sent to Eng- 

 land from Fisher's Island. There is, however, 

 no trace of them since the settlement in Con- 

 necticut and Massachusetts, except in the Berk- 

 shire Hills, where a few once existed, probably 

 only as migrants from the North. The early 

 settlers in Vermont and New Hampshire found 

 in their meat a most welcome source of food; 

 in fact, the numbers of moose alone enabled the 

 colonists at first to keep from starvation during 

 the long winters. They seem to have left the 

 Catskills about a hundred years ago, for an ac- 



count of that district published early in the cen- 

 tury speaks of them as subjects of tradition 

 only. 



With the exception of the remarkable fact 

 that about twenty years ago the wolves all van- 

 ished from the North Woods in one season 

 without any known cause, the similar disa[)ijear- 

 ance of moose from the same region is the 

 strangest incident in the natural history of New 

 York. Before the advent of the white hunter, 

 the moose are believed to have exceeded in 

 number the deer in that beautiful country of 

 mountain, lake, and forest, and yet to-day in all 

 the settlements and hunters' cabins in the North 

 Woods, or in the towns on its borders, there is 

 not a single set of moose antlers said to be from 

 that region. 



The Adirondacks were once the hunting- 

 grounds of the Six Nations and of the Cana- 

 dian Indians for their winter supply of moose 

 meat, and the bones of many a dusky warrior, 

 slain in the savage combats between the rival 

 tribes, lie under the pines and spruces by the 

 lakes he loved so well. Many, too, were the 

 tragedies enacted later between the red man 

 and the white trapper, both seeking moose- 

 hides in what was then an ideal hunting-country. 



The tradition of the mighty moose will be 

 preserved to all time by the names throughout 

 this district, which abounds in' Moose rivers, 

 creeks, lakes, and ponds. Raquette Lake re- 

 ceived its name from the circumstance that 

 the Canadian Indians resorted there to get 

 hides for their snow-shoes (raquette), and State 

 Naturalist De Kay, writing as late as 1841, 

 says moose still frequented that vicinity. In 

 fact, the last authentic moose were killed there. 

 They lingered long in what is still the wildest 

 part of the hunting region, viz., the country 

 south of Mud Lake, which was their head- 

 quarters long after they had vanished from the 

 surrounding territory. Here, too, their mem- 

 ory flourishes, and all yarns of moose tracks are 

 now referred to that lake. They still figure on 

 the statute-book in mockery ofthe tardiness and 

 impotence of the law to protect them, and fifty 

 dollars is the fine for killing one. 



The extremely wary character of the moose, 

 and his dishke for the vicinity of man, render 

 it very probable that although some were killed 

 for their hides and meat, the great majority left 

 the country and fled northward as settlements 

 pressed in. The last stragglers killed seemed to 

 have been shut off in the southwestern part of 

 thewilderness, and so had nochoice but tostay. 



This tendency of game, and particularly of 

 moose, to retire northward on the approach of 

 man is seen to-day in the region of the upper 

 Ottawa River. Moose are now abundant 

 around Temiscamingue, where a few years ago 

 none were to be found. 



