THE MOOSE OR FLAT-HORNED ELK 
by some other wild animal. They usually walk down wind and lie down 
in places where the slightest airs are borne to them from various sides. 
They have a regular habit of circling before settling in their beds so as 
to get the wind of anyone following closely on their tracks. 
On the whole moose are far better tempered than other deer. Even in 
the rutting season they are not nearly so dangerous as red deer, reindeer, 
or the smaller species when kept in confinement. Long ago they were 
regularly broken to harness in Norway and the Gulf of Bothnia, and re- 
cently many have been broken in and used to draw carriages and sledges 
in Manitoba. Tame moose are more or less successful pets in their own 
homes, but they have been found to be the most difficult of all deer to 
acclimatize in Zoological Gardens. In fact I have never yet seen a moose 
look well in confinement in Europe, and I believe they are unable to keep 
them for any time in New York or other American Zoos. Nowhere have 
I seen moose in a park look happy except in the National Park at Banff, 
Alberta, where the deer have a wide range covered with swamps and 
thickets, the former home of these animals in a wild state. 
The moose has several enemies, of which the worst are man and wolves. 
Bears and cougars kill a certain number of calves, but can make no 
impression on adults. Deer-flies, ticks and mosquitoes also worry them, 
but these are small things compared with the vast army of young and old 
men who annually pour into the woods to hunt either for meat or horns. 
Yet in spite of all man’s cleverness and destructive power the natural 
instincts of the moose are so highly developed that it more than holds its 
own, in spite of pump -guns used in and out of season. Not every one who 
goes to shoot a moose will get a single shot in the season, nor is it every 
hunter who cares or knows how to hunt off the beaten track. Then, too, there 
are vast regions of forest close to severely hunted tracts where man never 
enters and this “sanctuary” always affords a secure haven where moose 
may breed in peace and supply the place of those that are killed. 
As the reindeer and caribou furnish all things to the Lapps, Esquimaux, 
and northern Indians, so the moose to-day supplies nearly all those things 
that are the necessities of life to the wood Indians inhabiting an area in 
North America of over 3,500,000 square miles. Its flesh furnishes a 
constant supply of meat and fat, so necessary as a resistance to cold. 
Its sinews are used for sewing, its horns and bones make tools of various 
kinds, and its skin provides clothing, moccasins and snow-shoes. Even 
its hair is used for embroidery and ornaments. 
KK 
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