The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-14


pay-dirt. In fact, many starv-
ing stampeder, or scurvy VIC
tim dying on bacon and beans, has
been willing to exchange all
hope in a mine for a quarter OF moose or
cariboo. Except those who have tried 1t.
none can realize how persistent. how in
sistent. becomes the craving for meat
after a few months OF the steady diet
furnished by even the best miners OUT
fits taken into the wilderness. 1t Is a
safe assertion that the crankiest vege-
tartan in existence would become a back
slider IL. after winter in the North,
a savory cariboo stew was placed before
him.
In the sense that is understood in the
wilderness regions of the Western states,
Alaska Is not a good hunting country.
Nearly all who have been North can tell
Of great distances traversed. of days and
weeks OF toilsome hunting, without ever
getting shot. Yet it is fact that when
one has learned where and when and how
to look for game, he generally can lay in
winters supply. But with most Alas
kans the matter of fresh meat is either
a feast or a famine.
' The prospector in Washington and other
parts of the West counts upon regular
supply Of fish, flesh or fowl as matter of
course. The streams are full of trout, the
hills are full of deer. His grub pack con-
ssts mainly of -four and salt. With his
gun and ammunition he is in no danger of
starvation In the North the prospector
carries his gun, for he knows that he
may happen" to see something; but
most of those who have depended upon
their rifles on long journey have wished
they had their weight in musty flour be-
fore they got home, IL they We're able
to get back at all. Yet IL one cariboo is
seen, as likely as not there will be a dozen
or forty close by. If one moose is gotten,
there is food for months, provided the
weather is cold.
Moose, and How to Hunt Them.
VAIHEN an Alaskan Indian gets hungry.
w and he has no money to buy white
mans delcacies, he goes hunting for
moose, and he usually gets one, because
he has studied their ways and knows how
to get within gunshot of this widest of
all horned game. He goes for moose. for
he knows they are always somewhere in
the neighborhood. Cartboo and bear may
be present. but the former are migra-
tory, and the latter are scarce, except in
a few localities, where they are plentiful,
and some of them very dangerous. Moose
are ever on the move. but they do not
gather and travel in great bands like the
cariboo. One rarely hears of more than
two or three moose being seen together,
female and possibly couple Of year.
Qn September) two or three males may
be seen following and fighting for. fe-
male, but commonly the moose is soli-
tary animal.
In consequence of this, and because 1t
is equally at home all over the North
west, In winter as well as in summer, the
moose is the most widely distributed of the
big game animals of the North. The Carl
boo herd southwark as winter approaches,
the bear retires to his cavern for his six
or seven months Rip-Van- Wrinkle act, but
the moose, undaunted by wolf or winters
worst, calmly changes his diet from lake
grass to birch twigs and goes on laying
the miles behind him with his wonder
fully easy four-foot stride straight up
mountains straight across valleys, dis
daining all obstacles except perpendicular
cliffs If followed by wolf or man, he
takes to the steepest hills, the deepest
snow, or the thickest underbrush, and
how he goes!
B'rer Wolf soon gives up unless there
is crust on the snow strong enough to
bear him; then, and only then, in bands Of
several, does he ever have any show of
dining on moose, except an oc-
casional calf. But there is rare
ly crust strong enough to bear
the wolf A band may run a moose for a
frosty night in April. but the early rising
sun softens the snow again quickly, and
the wolf, with his tongue hanging out
after breaking through and foundering
along for an hour or two longer, curls
himself up, head in tail, by the trail, for
much-needed rest and regeneration. The
hunter will sometimes find four or five
little round icy hollows close together in
the snow, where wolves have gone into
camp after long chase. But when the
crust holds out, it's an unlucky day for
the moose. He is exhausted by the long