TRAILED DOWN. 



In the summer of nineteen years ago a sports- 

 man was jacking on Bog River, when suddenly 

 the hght flashed on two moose among the lily- 

 pads stupidly staring at it. The guide, not relish- 

 ing the idea of additional loads over the carries, 

 joggled the boat, and the astonished hunter 

 missed with both barrels full of buckshot. 



About twenty-five years ago a party of hun- 

 ters were hounding back of what is now Paul 

 Smith's, and one of the watchers, an old guide, 

 had taken his watch-ground on Mountain Pond, 

 about five miles from lower St. Regis Lake, 

 when he was so frightened at seeing a huge ani- 

 mal plunge into the pond and swim over that he 

 did not even dare to move from his post, much 

 less to use his rifle. From the description given 

 by the thoroughly scared hunter, it must have 

 been a moose. 



One of the Saranac guides, Reuben Rey- 

 nolds, remembers hearing his father tell of help- 

 ing to kill a bull moose which was mired in Fish 

 Creek on the Lower Saranac Lake, near the 

 present Hotel Ampersand. This is interesting 

 as an example of the manner in which many 

 prehistoric animals, notably the Irish elk, have 

 been buried in the bogs, and their remains 

 thus preserved to future ages. A number of 

 similar stories exist, most of which relate va- 

 guely back to a period at least twenty-five 

 years ago. The moose had gone long before 

 350 



that, but it is possible that solitary individuals 

 lingered on in the Bog River country even later. 



In 1877, tracks of moose were reported near 

 Great Sand Lake, and nearly ten years later, 

 in October, 1886, a young bull weighing three 

 hundred and fifty pounds was shot on Long 

 Lake. This last was unquestionably one of 

 several which had been turned loose by a game 

 club near Lake Placid. They had imported 

 three or four to stock their preserves, but on 

 discovering that the moose did not breed well 

 in confinement, set them all free in the woods. 



It seems well nigh incredible that, if this 

 young moose was native to the Adirondacks, 

 no authenticated instance had been recorded 

 of seeing either a moose, or even undoubted 

 moose-signs, during the quarter century since 

 1 86 1 . Their tracks, and other indications of their 

 presence, were occasionally reported, but in a 

 well-known country like the Adirondacks a 

 moose could be trailed — or his yard found,if in 

 winter — by a persistent hunter. From the eager- 

 ness and perseverance shown in hunting down 

 a panther whenever a track of one is found, one 

 can readily imagine how much chance a moose 

 would have of escaping. Moose-signs are unmis- 

 takable, and the marks where they have yarded 

 may show for years. Nothing but doubtful 

 tracks, which may have been made by a lost cow, 

 or lopped twigs have been proved, so we maybe 



