192 
MOOSE DEER. 
night. We had not fired a gun to disturb the silence. My own and my brother’s 
canoes were close together, when 1 saw an animal suddenly spring on to its feet 
from the long marshy grass about forty yards in advance of us. I said quickly 
“ Cariboo,” “ Cariboo,” “stoop low which we all did and continued moving on. It 
was about the size of a yearling heifer, but taller, of a bright, light, red colour, with 
long ears pricked forward, and a large soft eye ; and stood perfectly still, looking 
at us. We had gone perhaps ten yards, when there appeared from the long grass 
by its side, first the ears, then the huge head and muffle of ail old cow hlooso, the 
first one being as I now knew her calf, of perhaps four or five months old. She 
gradually rose to her knees, then sat upon her haunches, and at last sprang to her 
feet, her eyes all the time intently fixed upon us. The calf in the meanwhile had 
moved slowly ofi'. At this moment we both fired without any apparent eflect, the 
shot being too light to penetrate the thick hide. She turned instantly, showing a 
large and apparently well filled udder, struck into the ti-einendous trot, lor w'hich 
the Moose is so celebrated, crossed the deep brook almost at a stride, then the nar- 
row strip of meadow, and disappeared, crashing through the alders which inter- 
vened between the meadow and the dark evergreen forests beyond. 
Our oldest woodsman, Porter, assured us that she was one of the largest of her 
kind, and that it was rare good fortune to approach so near to this noblest denizen 
of our northern forests. We were much gratified, but our regret as sportsmen 
w'as still greater, at not having been prepared to take advantage of such an oppor- 
tunity as will probably never again occur to either of us. constantly both be- 
fore and afterwards saw the tracks of cariboo and Moose about our camps.” 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
Capt. Franklin, in his last expedition, states that several Moose were 
seen at the mouth of Mackenzie River, on the shores of the Arctic Sea, in 
latitude 69°. Farther to the eastward towards the Copper-mine River, we 
are informed by Richardson, they are not found in a higher latitude than 
65°. Mackenzie saw them high up on the eastern declivity of the Rocky 
Mountains, near the sources of the Elk River ; Lewis and Clark saw them 
at the mouth of the Oregon. To the east they abound in Labrador, Nova 
Scotia, New-Brunswick, and Lower Canada. In the United States they 
are found in very diminished numbers in the unsettled portions of Maine 
and at long intervals in New-LIampshire and Vermont. In the state of 
New-York, according to the observations, made by Dr. Dekay, (Nat. Hist. 
N. Y., p. 117), which we believe strictly correct, they yet exist in Herkimer, 
Hamilton, Franklin, Lewis and Warren counties, and their southern limit 
along the Atlantic coast is 43° 30'. 
general remarks. 
We have considerable doubts whether our Moose deer is identical with 
the Scandinavian elk {Gervus alcex, of authors), and have therefore 
not quoted any of the synonymes of the latter, hut having possessed no 
favourable opportunities of deciding this point, we have not ventured on 
the adoption of any of the specific names which have from time to time 
been proposed for the American Moose. 
