226 THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



protection of moose and other deer by government 

 propagation of big game in great national forests. 

 The supply of venison thus secured, and marketed 

 by the government, would be of value for its own 

 sake, and for its influence on meat prices in general. 

 Meanwhile, the pecuniary value of the moose in 

 America is represented in general terms by the 

 money spent by sportsmen who engage in hunting 

 them. As a source of food supply in the centers of 

 population the moose is now a negligible quantity. 



With a continuance of the present measure of 

 legal protection, the moose should be found in 

 practically as great numbers centuries hence in 

 America as today, and through the intervening 

 period he can still furnish the best of sport for the 

 hunter. He is adapted to escape extinction by 

 the same qualities which have enabled him to 

 survive the mastodon, and his other contemporaries 

 of prehistoric times. 



The moose is now in possession of a greater area 

 of forest country than any other species of the 

 deer family on this continent. He is the hardiest 

 and most capable of self-protection of all the deer, 

 and this will be about the last branch of the deer 

 family to become extinct in America.^ With 

 the extermination of the wolf and the cougar, 



* Andrew J. Stone, in The Deer Family^ p. 291. 



