The record-union., 1893-10-30
MOOSE IN HARNESS.
A Curious Scene at a North Dakota
Fair.
A Moose That Trotted Ninety Miles in
a Oay-WiII They Become
Fashionable2

One span of the captured moose men,
toned in my letter on Minnesota Moose
and Indians' is now owned and driven
by man in Grafton, \. d. Another Is
driven single by liveryman in Emer-
son, Manitoba. At recent fair or some
thing of the sort he was billed TO trot
against certain horse. The moose, then
three years old, was hooked into sulky,
and Harris, being a well-known horse
man, was requested TO drive him. The
headgear with which the moose was pro-
vided was simply halter, to which the
reins were attached. Harris insisted on
having bit put on, but the Hveryman
said the moose objected that he was per-
fectly gentle and tractable in the halter,
but that he drew the line on a bit-he
wouldn't have it. Harris mounted the
sulky, but had some doubts as to the out
come of the race.
The bell sounded and the horse and
moose started. The latter reached out in
q style rarely seen on any race course, his
big, clumsy hind feet tanning his ear at
every stride. At the first quarter post he
was more than a length ahead of the
horse, and before the half-mile post was
reached had doubled this lead. About
this time, however, he concluded he
wouldn't play and lit out for home,
striking squarely across the race
course and the fair grounds for the
main entrance. There was great jam of
people, carriages, farm wagons, half
breed carts and the like. but when the
moose started for them they stampeded
as If cyclone were coming their way.
The way was cleared and in spite of all
the pulling and saving Harris could do
the moose went out of the grounds and
down the main street of the town like
tornado. He headed for his corral, ad
joining the livery stable, the gate of
which happened to be open, but he made
q bad shot and caught one wheel of the
sulky on a gatepost.
LEFT THE SHAFTS.
He went out of the shafts as if there
had been none, went to the other end of
the corral and stood looking at his late
driver, with his ears thrown forward,
just as if he scented someone. Harris
pulled himself out of the wreck, badly
bruised and disfgured, and says that the
next time he drives moose he will put
on him the WickeGeSt ring and-chain
bronco bit he can find.
Still moose do make great drivers when
properly trained and handled. Their
magnificent build, their long, we'll
former and strongly set legs. their great
strength of quarter and loin and their
wonderful lung development give them
such power of endurance as no horse can
approach. a moose will simply trot all
day over any kind of ground, bog, wind
falls or rocks and scarcely tire. Harris
says that one morning in the winter OF
go and '9l he started from his ranch, on
ROSeau River, to drive to Emerson, a dis
tance of forty miles. Soon after leaving
home bull moose, with only one horn,
~,
parallel with the road on which Harris
was driving, and only half a mile away.
Harris had no gun and started out for
race. He put his horse into q run and
the moose trotted easily along, keeping
well abreast for about ten miles, when he
veered off to the south and was soon out
of sight. Harris went on to Emerson,
attended to his business, and started for
home at o'clock in the afternoon. Be-
fore he got out of town he saw the same
moose coming back from the south, still
on the trot, but now with his tongue
hanging out and thoroughly tired. He
bolted into a street of the town and
started north. Harris turned and drove
after him, shouting to the townspeople to
turn out and capture him.
HIS LONG RACE ENDED.
A hotel man saw him coming, ran in,
got rifle and killed him in front of his
the south, during the next week or two,
reported having seen a bull moose with
one horn on this same day, some of them
having encountered him as much as
twenty miles south of Emerson, and all
stating that he was on the trot. on tigur-
ing it out it was found that the moose had
trotted at least ninety miles that day after
Harris sighted him, and it was not
known how far before. Some hunter had
doubtless started him away up the Roseau
early in The morning, and having en-
countered people at frequent intervals he
had been kept in a state of alarm, only to
lose his lie at the end of his great race.
Nate Ellerton, who lives near the
Roseau, in the east end of Kittson Coun-
ty, has a three-year-old bull moose, a
moose calf and an elk calf, all caught in
the woods near his farm. The bull has
not yet been driven, but has been led and
handled all his life. When l was there
the rutting season was on. He was kept
in a corral and was disposed to be ugly.
No one, not even his owner, cared to go
inside the corral just at that time.-Chi-
cago Inter-Ocean.