e plain, there stood trees, far
apart from each other, and in nowise intercepting the view for a mile or
more. The ground was clear of underwood, except along the immediate
edge of the lake, which was fringed by a thicket of willows.

As Basil looked over the hill, he espied a small group of animals near
the interior border of the willows. He had never seen animals of the
same species before, but the genus was easily told. The tall antlered
horns, that rose upon the head of one of them, showed that they were
deer of some kind; and the immense size of the creature that bore them,
together with his ungainly form, his long legs, and ass-like ears, his
huge head with its overhanging lip, his short neck with its standing
mane, and, above all, the broad palmation of the horns themselves, left
Basil without any doubt upon his mind that the animals before him were
moose-deer--the largest, and perhaps the most awkward, of all the deer
kind. The one with the antlers was the male or bull-moose. The others
were the female and her two calves of the preceding year. The latter
were still but half-grown, and, like the female, were without the
"branching horns" that adorned the head of the old bull. They were all
of a dark-brown colour--looking blackish in the distance--but the large
one was darker than any of the others.

Basil's heart beat high, for he had often heard of the great moose, but
now saw it for the first time. In his own country it is not found, as
it is peculiarly a creature of the cold regions, and ranges no farther
to the south than the northern edge of the United States territory. To
the north it is met with as far as timber grows--even to the shores of
the Polar Sea! Naturalists are not certain, whether or not it be the
same animal with the elk (_Cervus alces_) of Europe. Certainly the two
are but little, if anything, different; but the name "elk" has been
given in America to quite another and smaller species of deer--the
wapiti (_Cervus Canadensis_). The moose takes its name from its Indian
appellation, "moosoa," or "wood-eater;" and this name is very
appropriate, as the animal lives mostly upon the leaves and twigs of
trees. In fact, its structure--like that of the camelopard--is such
that it finds great difficulty in reaching grass, or any other herbage,
except where the latter chances to be very tall, or grows upon the
declivity of a very steep hill. When it wishes to feed upon grass, the
moose usua