56 



THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



In a descending scale of importance other hills, 

 ponds, and streams, named for the moose which 

 frequented them, are scattered in the vast North 

 Country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.'^ They 

 are generally ignored by cartographers, but to 

 the man who, rifle in hand, stalks the giant deer, 

 they are often of more interest than the Himalayas 

 and Congos of distant continents. 



Division into Species. — The old-school nat- 

 uralist was spared the puzzling questions incident 

 to subdivision into species. A moose was a moose 

 — and he would busy himself with building a fire 

 to broil a slice of steak instead of tabulating 

 dimensions with the aid of calipers while his 

 stomach listened in vain for the dinner call. But 

 with the discovery in America of the animal which 

 some scientific men have called Alces americanus, 

 arose the question whether he was of a different 

 species from Alces palmatus or Alces macklis. In 

 other words, is the American moose of a different 

 species from the European elk.^ 



One writer says that the moose of eastern 

 America is "distinguished chiefly from its European 



Dr. Stuck'states that in his travels in Alaska, in which he covered 

 **ten thousand miles with a dog sled," he encountered thirteen streams 

 which were known as Moose Creek. 



