THE MOOSE OR FLAT-HORNED ELK 
civilization with its hosts of white hunters has driven the moose to the 
north. In Washington, Idaho, Montana and Lower Canada, moose are 
almost extinct, though a pleasant circumstance is afforded by their 
great increase in the Yellowstone Park, where efficient care has yielded 
a great improvement. 
In British Columbia and South-Eastern Alaska they do not approach 
the coast, but in the Kenai and Alaskan Peninsula they come right down 
to salt water. At one time moose ranged to the Mackenzie delta and 
bred there in large numbers, but of recent years great freshets are 
supposed to have drowned the calves in May. Mr Andrew Stone found few 
signs of moose there. 
The moose is the largest as well as in many ways the most interesting 
of the deer tribe. It is the hardiest and most capable of self protection of 
all deer, and will, I fancy, be the last to become extinct in the North 
American continent. With even fair protection, and that is all it gets in 
Canada, it can hold its own whilst animals of lesser cunning vanish; for 
its great ears and nose are ever working, and however stupid it may 
seem, its faculties of nose, hearing, and brain always stand it in good stead 
though its eyesight is not good. 
Just as the elk in Europe are contented with very narrow limits of 
range, so moose in America are often found within small areas, from which 
they never appear to move. This is very noticeable in the small numbers 
that frequent the eastern slopes of theTetons in Jackman’s Hole, Wyoming, 
and those of the Bitter Root Mountains and in East Kootenay. Yet in wider 
areas where moose frequent large forests of a similar character I have 
noticed a distinct small migration on the part of bull moose during the 
rutting season. In 1899 I found numbers of males were moving eastwards, 
from Ontario into Quebec, all as if actuated by some similar intention, 
and for a whole week I followed trails of travelling males, passing directly 
east towards the three rivers. 
By making a fresh expedition I intercepted them and found that 
numbers had met the cows which they seemed to know would be met 
with there; at this place they evidently intended to “yard up ’’ after the 
big snowfall in November. 
In winter, moose in America are satisfied with a very small range, 
which is called “ the yard,’’ and may be anything from ten to fifty acres 
in area. Indeed they have been known to spend the winter in a space within 
a radius of 300 feet (E. Thompson Seton). The size of the yard seems to 
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