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VOLUME XXVI— Xo. 5. 
NEW-YORK, MAY, 1867. 
KETF SERIES— Xo. 244. 
THE MOOSE — MALE AND 
CCOPYHIGIIT SECURED.] 
P E M A L E. — (Alec AmiricanilS.) — Drawn and Engraved for the Amincun Agriculturist. 
This is the largest of the deer family, as well 
as the most ungainly ami awkward It has none 
of the grace of other (leer, but moves its pon- 
derous body (weighing often ten or twelve hun- 
dred weight) with a plunging, reckless gait, 
often, it is said, meeting with mishaps, and 
falling from treading on its own feet. The 
forests of Maine, Northern Xew York, and 
Michigan, are its southern limits. The Elk of 
Europe and Asia (Alee malchis) is closely allied 
to the Moose, but a distinct species. The animal 
we call Elk should be called the American Stag, 
and the Moose is really the American Eik. The 
form is well shown in the engraving. Very 
high at the withers, and sloping lo the tail, the 
fore legs long and stiff, the head enormous, cars 
large, the nose and upper lip pendulous, the 
horns flat, palmated, ending in numerous tips, 
and very large. The Moose is a semi-arctic and 
semi-aqualic animal, feeds upon water plants, 
moss, and twigs, and remains in winter in what 
are called " yards," where the snow is kept trod- 
den down. The males are called bulls, and the 
females cows ; they are hunted in canoes upon 
the lakes, or on snow shoes, 'when deep snows 
impede the going of the animal. The flesh and 
hide are both of value, but as a general thing 
the animal is more hunted for sport than for 
profit They arc taken in pit-falls also and by 
nooses. The strength of the animal is in pro- 
portion to its size, and its speed is very consider- 
able. The Moose, as well as its European 
congener, has been, repeatedly tamed, and, like 
the rein-deer, made to draw wagons and sledges. 
Duriug the breeding season, however, the males 
become utterly unmanageable and so dangerous 
that their use has to be dispensed with. Wc 
find no record of the use of emasculated ani- 
mals, but see no reason why they might not be 
made as docile as oxen, while at the same time 
they would be profitable for their meat, as they 
feed on a great variety of coarse heritage, green 
and dry. Domestication would doubtless also 
change their fierce nature. It seems a pity that 
so valuable an animal should become extinct. 
