THE MOOSE AND HIS HISTORY 29- 



In the hunting territory which was easy of access 

 the heedless slaughter of which Charlevoix com- 

 plained continued through the Colonial period, 

 and the larger game animals became a constantly 

 diminishing factor in the life of the white settlers. 

 As for the Indians of Maine and Canada, it was 

 necessary for them to make longer and longer 

 journeys in the winter, to find this class of game in 

 the profusion to which they had been accustomed. 



The early histories of the northern States remote 

 from the seaboard contain few references to the 

 moose. The settlers were too busy to engage 

 in hunting for its own sake, and game soon became 

 an immaterial consideration with them as a source 

 of food supply. With the Indians it was different. 

 Schoolcraft, writing in Territorial days of the nat- 

 ural resources of Michigan, says: "The moose is 

 confined to the portions of country northwest 

 of Lake Huron, where it is still relied on by the 

 Indian tribes as among the means of their preca- 

 rious subsistence."'^'^ 



A reminiscence of the time when the moose 

 still frequented the northern woods of Michigan, 

 is found in the coat-of-arms of that State. This 

 coat-of-arms, as blazoned on the Great Seal, has 



44 Historical and Scientific Sketches of Michigan (Detroit, 1834), p. 

 185. 



