76 



THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



moose two or three years old swam eight miles 

 without showing evidence of exhaustion.'^ UnKke 

 the whitetail, a moose will not go on ice if he can 

 avoid it. 



In common with some other creatures of the 

 woods, the moose has gained a reputation as a 

 dangerous animal which his disposition does not 

 justify. Attacks upon men made by moose 

 are very rare, even in the rutting season. The 

 occasional authenticated cases of such attacks 

 are generally due, in all probability, to the moose 

 in his passion mistaking his adversary for another 

 moose. Wounded, and at close quarters, with all 

 chance of escape cut off, a moose will of course 

 attack a man as a measure of self defence: a 

 squirrel would do as much. 



The chief causes which have tended to give 

 the moose a reputation for pugnacity have been 

 the weaknesses and eccentricities incident to the 

 rutting season, and his errors of judgment when 

 confused by the glare of light from a jack carried 

 by fire hunters in a canoe.'^ 



In many camping trips in the moose country, 

 seventeen of which have been made in the open 

 season, when moose hunting was the chief subject 



»6 The Deer Family, p. 318. ^^ See pp. 146-147. 



