78 



THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



he added. That's a man with a gun which he 

 don't know how to use." 



This was an unusually long speech for Atkins to 

 make, and he lapsed into silence again. 



A remarkable instance of seeming hostility on 

 the part of a moose toward men is related by 

 Theodore Roosevelt in Scribners Magazine for 

 February, 1916. Mr. Roosevelt with two guides 

 was hunting from a canoe on a lake in the Ste. 

 Anne River country northwest of Quebec. On 

 the morning of September 19, 1915, he shot a bull 

 with antlers spreading fifty-two inches. Late in 

 the afternoon of the same day the party en- 

 countered another large bull on the same lake. 

 The bag limit was one moose, so the men in the 

 canoe paddled about, not far from shore, watching 

 the moose, which in turn watched them. 



"When we turned he followed us back, and 

 thus went to and fro with us. Where the water 

 was deep near shore, we pushed the canoe close 

 in to him, and he promptly rushed down to the 

 water's edge, shaking his head, and striking the 

 earth with his fore hoofs. We shouted at him 

 but with no effect. . . . Altogether the huge 

 black beast looked like a formidable customer, 

 and was evidently in a most evil rage and bent 

 on man-killing. For over an hour he thus kept 



