88 
ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
for u camping” out at night, set out in search of their game. 
Having found their animal, they wait till daybreak, when the 
dogs are laid on, and the hunters wearing large snow shoes 
follow as closely as possible. The deer does not run far, be- 
fore the crust on the snow through which he breaks at every 
step, cuts his legs so severely that the poor animal stands at 
bay, and endeavors to defend himself by striking with his 
fore feet, but the arrival of the hunter soon ends his career. 
The skin of the Moose is of great value to the Indian, as it 
is used for tent covers, clothing, &c. It is feared from the 
rapid destruction of these animals, and the way in which they 
have diminished of late years, that the species will eventually 
become extinct. 
“ In the winter of 1842, twenty three officers,” as we are 
informed by Porter, u of the Grenadier and Coldstream 
Guards, then in garrison at Quebec and Montreal, killed 
during a short hunting tour, ninety-three Moose. Hone of 
the parties were absent more than fourteen days.” But a 
more remarkable fact, as related by “ Frank Forrester,” was 
“ the killing of three moose with a common fowling piece, by 
an officer not reputed to be very crack as a shot, on the 
Mountain, within a few miles of Montreal, during a morning’s 
walk from that populous city.” He also cites another instance 
of a friend killing seven of these glorious animals on the 
River St. Maurice, in the rear of the pretty village of Three 
Rivers, all of which he ran into upon snow shoes, after a chase 
of about three days. 
The Reindeer, or Cariboo ( Oervus tarandus or Tarandus 
rangifer'). 
Description . — Body robust, and low on the legs ; snout 
thin, with oblique nostrils ; ears large ; horns usually slender, 
the main stem directed backwards, terminating in a broad 
palmated expansion ; hoofs rounded ; color varies with age ; 
a smooth coat of grayish brown, — beneath the throat and 
belly, white. 
