74 
FOREST AND STREAM 
MOOSE IN SWEDEN 
BOTH UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
SHOULD FIND A MORAL HERE 
62 elk and 14 antelope, all under fence and 
doing well. Four antelope were lost dur¬ 
ing the last year, a serious misfortune, for 
the unique prong horn antelope is to be 
America’s first game animal to disappear. 
The bison in this park were donated by the 
New York Zoological Society, and the an¬ 
telope by the Boone and Crockett Club. 
The Wichita Game Reserve, in Kansas, 
has a herd of buffalo given by the New 
York Zoological Society, and a few ante¬ 
lope sent by the Boone and Crockett Club. 
The Wyoming elk refuge is entended as 
a winter home for the elk, which have al¬ 
ways come down from the mountains to 
the lower ground in winter, and in years 
past have perished in large numbers from 
starvation and other causes in the Jack- 
son Hole country. This reservation yields 
a certain amount of hay to be fed to the 
hungry animals. 
The Niobrara Reservation, in Nebraska, 
now contains 14 buffalo, 32 elk and 2 deer. 
It is very small, and the animals must be 
fed hay during the winter to keep them 
alive. 
There are other reservations, not in a 
forward state of improvement, but the 
growth of interest in these matters is a 
most wholesome sign of the times. 
A MATTER in which all sportsmen may 
feel a just pride is the hard work 
done in behalf of the spread of an 
interest in these matters by eminent men 
all over the country. On the Pacific Coast 
officials of institutions of learning, like 
Messrs. Joseph Grinnell, Storer and Taylor, 
are steadfastly engaged in the work of 
arousing public opinion in behalf of wise 
measure, efficiently to protect our wild life. 
On the Atlantic Coast similar work is being 
done by associations and individuals, as 
Prof. H. F. Osborn, Madison Grant and 
Charles Sheldon, and the force exerted by 
all these efforts grows constantly stronger. 
N OW that the United States has estab¬ 
lished a National Park Service, which 
is taking over all these national reser¬ 
vations, to be conducted under a single 
bead, we may look forward to much more 
efficient and economical management, and 
to an increasingly rapid system of educating 
people as to the wonders which exist in 
these parks. It has been wisely recom¬ 
mended that among the officials of each 
park should be a resident naturalist, in 
charge of the park’s wild life, who should 
study and report on it. Such an officer 
could do a wonderful amount of good, not 
only for the wild life of the parks, but for 
the education and pleasure of that ever¬ 
growing portion of the public which visits 
these parks—largely for the purpose of 
seeing that wild life. 
The growth and progress of national 
parks and game refuges are recognized by 
no one more clearly than by Forest and 
Stream, which has had its part in the move¬ 
ment for more than forty years, and is 
now reaping its reward in witnessing the 
accession of multitudes of men, women 
and children to swell that earnest band 
whose exhortations and warnings a genera¬ 
tion ago were as the voice of one crying in 
the wilderness. 
T HROUGH the kindness of J. W. Fran- 
zen, Curator of the Museum of the 
Minnesota Academy of Sciences at 
Minneapolis, Minn., Forest and Stream is 
enabled to present an interesting record of 
the moose killed in Sweden during six re¬ 
cent years. 
The figures are furnished by Prof. Einar 
Lonnberg, of the National Museum of 
Stockholm. The period covered is from 
1909 to 1914, inclusive: 
1909.1758 
1910.::.1826 
1911 .1666 
1912 .1694 
1913 . 2 °43 
1914.1769 
These figures run along very evenly, and 
we may imagine that the killing of the 
moose—called elk in Sweden—is so safe¬ 
guarded there that its numbers remain pret¬ 
ty much the same. 
There was a time when elk in Scan¬ 
dinavia were almost exterminated, and in 
the early part of the last century the kill¬ 
ing of elk, red deer and roebuck was alto¬ 
gether prohibited. This law, which had 
previously been in existence, was re-enact¬ 
ed at the Diet of 1824-25, to continue in 
force for a period of ten years. After that 
there was an open season every tenth year, 
but, according to Lloyd, about 1834, moose 
—or elk—were so nearly exterminated in 
the Wermeland and Dalecarlian forests 
that one might wander through them for 
days or even weeks together without seeing 
a single track. About 1850, however, they 
had become more numerous, and in the 
sameSocality tracks were frequently seen. 
This is said to have been largely attrib¬ 
utable to a Mr. Falk, who for years very 
strictly preserved a large tract of forest 
near his home, where the elk multiplied, and 
from which they spread through the sur¬ 
rounding country. 
In old times in Sweden, as in many other 
places, the elk (moose) were killed in pret¬ 
ty much any fashion, for it was then a 
question of meat. They were taken in pit- 
falls, which were provided with interior 
engines of destruction, by a sort of self¬ 
acting bow and arrow—or lance thrown 
by a spring—called elg-led, by ringing— 
that is, by surrounding by a number of 
men—and by means of a pointer dog, which 
when it encountered the scent of the deer 
followed it slowly. In some cases these 
dogs were kept on leash. In others, bet¬ 
ter broken, the dogs went free. Besides 
this, they were chased up in crusted snow 
by hunters on skiis. In view of all these 
methods of destruction, and of the almost 
continuous pursuit, it is not surprising that 
the elk became almost extinct. 
E do not recall the earliest mention 
of the elk in history, but there is a 
description of it—by Tacitus, was it 
not?—which is famous. When the Romans- 
were conquering the wild tribes of Ger¬ 
many, they first heard of the elk, which,, 
they were told, had no joints in its.legs,, 
and, being unable to lie down, slept leaning 
against a tree. The story went that the 
natives took advantage of this habit to se¬ 
cure the elk, and that when they found a 
tree against which an elk habitually leaned! 
in sleeping, they cut it almost through, so- 
that the next time the elk leaned against 
the trunk, the tree fell over, and the elk, 
thrown to the ground and unable to rise- 
again, was easily killed. 
As is well known, the Swedish moose 
(Alces alces, L.) —elg, pronounced alj—is- 
smaller and grayer than any of the Ameri¬ 
can forms. It is found at the present time 
from Northern Scania to Northern Lap- 
land, except on the very open land, and, 
of course, the densely populated areas. It 
is most numerous in the National Parks, 
and rather abundant in the Royal Game 
Preserve at Hunneberg, Westergotland. 
This park is located on a mountain whose 
walls are almost perpendicular, making it 
difficult or impossible for the animals to- 
escape from it except by one or two roads. 
Here the King hunts once a year, and 
only enough animals are shot to keep the 
herd in good condition. This year twenty 
were killed. The meat is distributed to 
charitable institutions, and to poor people. 
In the Provinces of Norbotton, Wasterbot- 
ten, Wasternoerl and Jamtland, and Sarna 
Township in Kopparberg, the open season 
on moose is from September 9th to 15th. 
The reason for this early season is that 
snow often falls in October in this latitude, 
and after the coming of the snow the 
tracking would be easy and the hunting 
would prove too destructive. However, 
the rut is over by this time. No yearlings 
may be killed here. 
In Gefieborg and the rest of Kopparberg 
the open season is October 10th to 16th. 
In the rest of the country the season is 
from October 10th to 23d. 
Both males and females are allowed to 
be killed. 
