Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1894-02-24
TRACKING THE MOOSE.
Extreme Care Necessary to Avoid
Alarming the Magnificent Animals

Extreme Care Necessary TO AFOld
Alarming the Magnificent Animals.
A deer when started by hunter or
driven by hounds usually returns in
a few days to the same hill or noun
taiu-side where he was first found, says
Madison Grant in Century; but a
moose, when once thoroughly alarmed,
will start on a long swinging walk,
and, taking with him his entire family,
leave for good 1t is one Of the great
est difficulties and they are many--in
still hunting this animal to avoid get
ting him under way, for then the hun
ter may as well break camp and try
other fields. since not a moose viii be
found within miles. They scent a moe
casin track or the smoke of a fire at az
incredible distance. \ fresh trail may
be found one day, and arrangements
made to follow it at day-break on the
morrow During the night the moose
returning to his old h0unts, detects the
dauger-Signs, and all the hunters find
in the morning is a trail six or eight
hours old leading for parts unknown
in an almost perfectly straight line
The moose it at that moment. perhaps
twenty miles off, and still going.
Although moose can not be driven
to water by hounds like deer, but Will
turn savagely at bay, still they viii
not remain in a locality where dogs
aIe running; so that when the white
hunters became numerous in the North
woods, and especially when they in
troduced bounding, the moose simply
left the country, and passed either east
ward 10 Maine or uorthward TO Can
ada
1t is a wellauthenticated but little
known fact that they practically left
in one season. They We're numerous in
the Adirondacks, especially in Browns
Tract-a large district in what is now
the southwestern part of the wilder
ness until the period between 1850
ana 1856 probably near the latter
YEAR, when they suddenly disappeared.
Before this several had been killed
yearly. Scattered ones were shot later,
hut 1885 marked their exit from the au-
nails Of New York game Years later.
four or five were brought back to Sar
amaze. but would not stay.
When a bull moose lies dead in the
forest, he looks like some strange ante
diluyian animal, with his square pre-
henSile mufTIe and horns spreading lat.
erally-a popularity which he shares
with the prehistoric Irish elk and near
~ extinct European elk of later times.
The huge form tells of strength and
Swiftuess, and, withal, the still danger
Gus CLEAN of the eye glazed in its last
stare bids the hunter pause and feel
almost guilty OF "a crime in the de
struction Of so much that is grand and
weird. a feeling very different from the
sentiment supposed to attend the
slaughter of a deer. But the triumph
Of mastering the wariest and braveSt
animal in the woods by fair still-hunt-
ing, and by grimly sticking TO the
rack for many q weary mile, amply
atOnes for any regrets
One can form only Il very erroneous
idea Of the true appearance Of a moose.
Few. If any, taXidermiSts have ever.
from the stuffed heads usually seen,
seen a live moose. and with only the
loose hide to work on, they make a
monstrosity of e, giving MIN decid-
eddy miSShapcn nose. ana filing out TO
the utmost the immense nostrilS, which
. in repose are in a collapsed state. The
cars come above the horns. not behind
them. as is usually the ease in mount
( Ell specimens.
In the living animal the nose is a
marvel Of uglness and the surface Gov
cred by the olfactory nerves so great
that # IS doubtful whether there is
any other animal whose sense Of smell
/ is so highly developed Like most
+ ether denizens of the forest it relies far
I more on its scent than on its sight
! The eyes are small and wicked, snap
/ ping and cleaning on tire smallest pro
vocation, and betray at once the ugly
I character Of their owner,