THE MOOSE HERD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 58

THE MOOSE HERD.

SEEKING THEIR TRACES. (Fbom Otjb Own Cobbbspohdbnt.) CHRISTCHtfRCH, Maroh 2. In reference' to a paragraph about moose deer in George Sound, Mr Frank Bgan; jrho describee himself as an old colonist, deeretalker, and sportsman, write* to the Fieas as follows: — "In addition to the lour gentlemen referred to who landed from the Hinemoa at the head of George Sound, there were seven or eight other passengers, including myself, who went in quest of the game in the bush. The hoofmarks found were unquestionably those of targe deer, but were ao few and far between that they by no means justified the deduction that the herd was keeping well together, or eveu inoreaeing or intact. The number turned out over three years ago in the narrow baein or valley where ' they were landed mustered 18, and as under j auda circumstances thoy continue to fre?uent their early camping grounds undisturbed and able to Subsist, we should have seen infinitely more evidence of their presence if it existed. Even" if only a fourth | of the original herd were habitues of the> j Area in which they were first harboured, as lihis is the season in which the stags are in velvet, which causes them, through irritation, to chafe the bark of the trees with •heir antlers, and is also the time of year when they mate with the -binds, when they ' 6re continually on the move, rounding up their harems, calling and challenging intruders, we should have found due evidence of a more numerous herd if it Existed, whereas there were at the outfide the tracks end indications of the ' pretence of only two or three animals. Pos- 1 aibly a few may have found their way over the saddle above, but *bis I doubt, as the , country on the other side is less -alluring, and Mr T. G. Gaulfcer, explorer and prospector, of Milford Sound, who has been fre- j duently over this locality since the intro- | auction of the moose there, assured me ' that he has neither seen nor heard any j evidenoe of their wanderings. "The captain 1 of the Hinemoa, who liberated the deer in j excellent health and- condition after their > *teyegt» from America, told me during our t iaoonuoisanoe that an admirable place had ' bMb selected by the late Premier to turn uMrin out. but that en route the Tourist Department telegraphed to him to land them . «.t the head of George Sound, wherein, on a Subsequent inspection of them, ho dis- 1 covered two of their skeletons. Clearly a more unsuitable place could not be found > in all New Zealand for them, as Mr Henry, I caretaker of our native birds in these parts, a*rured me that the average rainfall there fa about 21 days per month- The aspect ■ of the narrow, cold, wet, dark valley is bad, ' without a vestige of grass, a ray of sunshine. I or a spot whereon the languishing beast can I dry its carcase in repose, excepting a few \ hundred yards of narrow beach, where the. persecuted animal is goaded' to distraction by , the insatiable sandfly. Depend upon it that the moose is doomed _to extmotion here ere long, and that it is unfortunate for tbe colony that such affairs are- left In incapable hand*. Their deeds are writ in Vater, yet we have raised a £40,000 monument to them at Rotorua.