6 



THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



or the other was the moose, for the great captain 

 bought his winter store of meat from the Indians, 

 and the Indians of that region depended largely 

 on the moose for their own subsistence. 



Champlain in 1603, and Lescarbot a year or 

 two later, visited "New France," and both left 

 valuable accounts of the country, its inhabitants 

 and its fauna. Both explorers adopted the Basque 

 word orenac when referring to the moose, and 

 both seemed to recognize the animal as identical 

 with the elk of Europe. 



In The Savages, or Voyage of Sieur de Cham- 

 plain made in the Year 160 Champlain mentions 

 orignacs'^ first in a list of twelve species of ani- 

 mals on which the savages of the St. Lawrence 

 Valley subsisted. A year later, telling of his 

 exploration of the St. Croix River, he describes 

 the winter hunting of the aborigines. On snow- 

 shoes, with "filling" of moose hide, dressed in 

 skins of beaver and moose, men, women, and 

 children, armed with bows and spears, would take 

 the trail into the moose country, in quest of their 

 winter's store of food.^ 



Marc Lescarbot of Paris, historian of New 



7 '* Durant Vhyver aufort des neges Us vont chasser aux eslans, & autres 

 hestes, dequoy Us vivent la plus-part du temps." — Les Voyages de la Nouvelle 

 France Occidentale, dicte Canada (Paris, 1632), p. 71. Les Voyages du. 

 Sieur de Champlain (Paris, 1613), pp. 56-57. 



