Tobique River in the province of New Brunswick, a few years ago, when several hundred of these noble animals were slaughtered for the sake of their hides, and their carcasses left to rot in the forest.

To the early settlers in the states of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the flesh of the moose was the main-stay, and his hide furnished them with serviceable clothing. At the present time, with the exception of Maine, the moose are almost extinct in the eastern states, and they are becoming scarce in Nova Scotia. In New Brunswick they are seldom found on the rivers emptying into the Bay of Fundy, where in former days they existed in vast numbers. They can yet be found, however, in considerable numbers on the head-waters of the Restigouché and Miramichi rivers and their branches; in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario south of the St. Lawrence; in the central parts of the county of Rimouski, and thence southward along the borders of Maine, and all through the country south of the city of Quebec to New Hampshire. In the county of Gaspé they are extinct, having been exterminated by ruthless hunters for the sake of their hides. North of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, the moose ranges from Lake Wanapitiping nearly to the Saguenay. Their northern limit is now somewhere near the water-shed of Hudson Bay; it was formerly beyond it. The western limit is about the longitude of Lake Huron. None are now found north of Lake Superior, although they have existed in this region as far north as the Albany River. In the north-west territories they are found as far as the Mackenzie River. A friend gave me the measurements of a moose killed in Rupert's Land, which, if correct, would go far to verify some of the old-time stories of the wondrous size of the moose. In the United States moose are still found in sufficient numbers to warrant the belief that, by judicious protection, the species might be perpetuated. They are quite abundant in Oregon, Washington Territory and the whole northern border of the United States as far as the Lake of the Woods. They are still met with occasionally in the northern part of Michigan, along the shores of Lake Superior, and very rarely in northern Vermont and the Adirondack region. They also inhabit the wooded region of the great lakes and that lying thence westward to the Rocky Mountains.

The southernmost point at which they have been found in the West, is in Idaho, on the forks of the Snake River near the Three Tetons, where several were seen and killed by members of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. The present southern limits of the moose on the Atlantic coast, are the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in the Bay of Fundy. These provinces are still his favorite haunts, and here in the present day he is most accessible to the hunter. This is perhaps owing to the infinite number of lakes and the prevalence of swampy, low-lying woods and bogs, in which he loves to dwell.*

The color of the American moose when in his prime is almost jet black, becoming more or less streaked with brownish gray as the animal advances in years. The head is so large as to appear out of harmony with the other proportions of the body. The ears are upward of one foot long, yellowish brown in color, and bordered with a narrow strip of a deeper shade, the inside lined with yellow hairs. Surrounding the orbit of the eye the skin is destitute of hair, and is of a pale flesh color; the eye is a velvety brown, and soft in expression, except when the animal is wounded, or brought to bay, when it assumes a lurid hue and a twinkling, savage expression. The flanks are a yellowish white, and the legs brown, and of extraordinary length. White of Selborne, writing of a moose which he had seen, quaintly remarks upon "the strange length of its legs, on which it was tilted up much in the manner of the birds of the grallæ order." A curious muscular development of the upper lip termed the mouffle is common to both sexes, and a pendulous gland hangs from the neck of the males. The neck and withers are surmounted by a voluminous mane of a light gray color. This hair is dyed various brilliant colors by the Indians, and is used to embroider designs upon birch bark, velvet and other materials.

The largest moose that I ever saw measured six feet and nearly five inches at the withers, a trifle less at the buttock, and four feet and five inches from the withers to the buttock, and from withers to the top of the

skull, twenty-seven inches. The head measured two feet and five inches from the mouffle to a point between the ears, and nine inches between the eyes. The horns weighed forty-five pounds, and measured four feet and three inches from tine to tine at their widest part, and at their greatest width the palmated parts measured thirteen inches. The horn, at its junction with the skull, was eight inches in circumference. The whole carcass before gralloching must have weighed close upon twelve hundred pounds. I have heard of cases where the specimen exceeded these measurements, but the reports lacked confirmation. The moose is commonly represented very much higher at the at the withers than at the buttocks, which is undoubtedly a mistake, as in no instance (and I have measured many animals) have I found any great difference in favor of height at the withers, although the mane gives a casual observer a contrary impression. The great length of its legs and prehensile lip are of much benefit to the moose, and wonderfully adapted to his mode of feeding, which consists in peeling the bark from, and browsing upon, the branches and tender shoots of deciduous trees. When the branches or tops of trees are beyond his reach, he resorts to the process termed by hunters "riding down the tree," by getting

astride of it and bearing it down by the weight of his body until the coveted branches are within his reach.

The senses of smelling and hearing are very acute, his long ears are ever moving to and fro intent to catch the slightest sound, and his wonderfully constructed nose carries the signal of danger to his brain, long before the unwary hunter has the slightest idea that his presence is suspected. When alarmed, this ponderous animal moves away with the silence of death, carefully avoiding all obstructions, and selecting the moss-carpeted bogs and swales, through which he threads his way with a persistence that often sets at defiance all the arts and endurance of even the practiced Indian hunter.

Much has been said and written of the ungainly appearance of the moose. Probably very few persons have seen the moose in his wild state,-perhaps only after he has passed through the hands of some unskilled taxidermist, whence he emerges, in most instances, an animal fearfully and wonderfully made. No person who has seen this noble animal in his native forests could fail to be impressed with the majesty and grandeur of his appearance. A few years ago, I was painting some tree studies near one of the numerous lakes in Charlotte County, New