146 THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



toward the lighted objects on shore, with equal 

 indifference, except that his curiosity is aroused 

 by the mystery of an unfamihar condition. If he 

 is facing the jack, and a shot is fired, he will run 

 from the noise, which he associates with the light, 

 and the man with the jack need not fear an en- 

 counter at close quarters. But if the moose is 

 facing away from the jack, gazing at the trees 

 on shore bathed in supernatural light, as he often 

 does, and someone behind the jack fires a shot, 

 the animal will strike for deep water, associating 

 the gunshot with the weird illumination of the 

 forest at an hour when usually all is dark. 



To the moose the strangely lighted woods are 

 the source of danger, and impelled by fear he gets 

 the reputation of having the temper of a wild- 

 cat, combined with the courage of a grizzly bear. 

 Moose have frightened sportsmen many times, and 

 wrecked canoes in some cases, when blindly fleeing 

 from an imaginary enemy on shore. They have 

 seemed to be assuming the offensive, when in 

 reality they were in the panic of precipitate flight. 

 In these cases a cow moose is as dangerous as a 

 bull.^ 



' See "One Season's Game-Bag with the Camera," by George Shiras, 

 3d, in National Geographic Magazine, June, 1908, p. 415. See also 

 "Hunting Big Game with Flashlight and Camera," by William L. 

 Underwood, in Country Life in America for June, 19 10. Dr. Charles 



