MOOSE DEER. 
191 
a horizontal branch of a tree, with a large noose and slip-knot at one end, 
whilst a heavy log is attached to the other, hanging across the limb or 
branch, and touching the gi-ound. The Moose, as it walks along, passes 
its head through the noose, and the farther it advances, the tighter it finds it- 
self fastened, and whilst it plunges terrified onwards, the log is raised 
from the ground until it reaches the branch, when it sticks, so that no 
matter in what manner the Moose moves, the log keeps a continued strain, 
rising and falling, but not giving the animal the least chance to escape, 
and at last the poor creature dies miserably. They are also ‘ pitted’ at 
times, but their legs are so long, that this method of securing them seldom 
succeeds, as they generally manage to get out.” 
The Moose is well known to travellers who have crossed the Rocky 
Mountains, where this animal is principally called by the French name, 
“L’Orinal.” 
Whilst at Quebec, in 1842, we procured the head and neck of a very 
large male, (handsomely mounted) ; which was shot in the state of Maine, 
where the Moose is still frequently found. 
Moose deer are abundant in Labrador, and even near the coast 
Iheir tracks, or rather paths, may be seen, as distinctly marked as the 
cow-paths about a large stock-farm. In this sterile country, where the 
trees are so dwarfish that they only deserve the name of shrubs, and wdiere 
innumerable barren hills arise, with cold clear- water ponds between, the 
Moose leeds luxuriously on the scanty herbage and the rank summer 
grasses that are found on their sides; but in winter the scene is awfully 
desolate, after the .snows have fallen to a great depth ; the whistling winds, 
unimpeded by trees or forests, sweep over the country, carrying with them 
t he light snow from the tops and windward sides of the hills in icy clouds, and 
soon forming tremendous drifts in the valleys. No man can face the storm- 
driven snows of this bleak, cold country ; the congealed particles are 
almo.st solid, and so sharp and fine that they strike upon the face or bands 
like small shot ; the tops of the hills are left quite bare and the straggling 
Moose or rein deer seek a precarious supply of mosses along then- 
sides. At this season the Moose sometimes crosses the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence on the ico to Newfoundland, or follows the coast towards the shore 
opposite Nova Scotia, and there passes the Gulf and wanders into more 
woody and favoured regions for the winter. 
q'he followino- is from our friend S. W. Rodman, Esq., of Boston, an excellent 
and'^a lover of nature, to whom we are indebted for many kindnesses. 
11. TVf. :_l: 
sportsman, a 
“Oin- nartvwas returning from 
lake Miramiolii, about the. middle of .July, by 
breed in those miinhabited soutucies, as mo wcie ....j ..... 
did ; salmon cither boiled or “skinned” being set before us morning, noon and 
