376 



APPENDIX 



J. 



NEW BRUNSWICK'S HARNESSED MOOSE 

 (See page 75.) 



Reference Is made in the chapter on Traits and Habits 

 of the Moose to a story which is current in New Brunswick, 

 that years ago a moose was driven in harness from Frederic- 

 ton to St. John and return in a single day. My own efforts, 

 by correspondence and otherwise, to obtain more circumstantial 

 details of this occurrence were fruitless. I was informed that 

 the owner of the moose had been a former Governor of the 

 Province, but could learn nothing more. Professor William 

 F. Ganong, a well-known writer on subjects relating to the 

 history of New Brunswick, and its natural history, for whose 

 friendly interest in the Moose Book since it was first pub- 

 lished I am under great obligation, has convinced me that this 

 story of the harnessed moose should be given a place among 

 the myths with which the moose has from time immemorial 

 been surrounded. 



Professor Ganong writes that Governor Sir Edmund Head, 

 who lived in New Brunswick from 1848 to 1854, owned a 

 moose which was often driven in harness, and this moose took 

 part in races on the ice at Fredericton against horses belong- 

 ing to army officers. Lord Hill, an officer who was stationed 

 in Fredericton more than twenty years before Governor 

 Head's time, was also fond of racing, but it does not appear 

 that moose occupied any place in his stable. A contemporary 

 account may be found in the files of the St. John Gazette of 

 a race which took place January i, 1825, in which a pair of 

 horses belonging to Lord Hill were matched against another 

 pair to race from St. John to Fredericton on the ice. Lord 

 Hill made the eighty-seven miles in six hours and thirty-two 

 minutes, winning the stakes. Thus far, Professor Ganong 

 writes, the statements appear to be warranted by the facts. 



