Irregular Migrations--Range--Habits--Moose Birds--Moose Hunters--Final
Extermination--The Last Moose.
Needless to say it is pretty well established that the Black Moose
was not a permanent resident in Pennsylvania during the past five
hundred years, it was not even an annual visitor, and if it bred
here, it was after its migrations North were stopped by the "ring of
steel" of the army of Nimrods along the Delaware. During exceptionally
cold winters up to the last decade of the Eighteenth Century, the
Moose moved Southward out of their permanent abodes in the Adirondack
wilderness, crossing the Mohawk River at some un-named point, thence
following the Catskill wilderness through Schoharie, Greene, Ulster
and Sullivan Counties to Narrowsburg, where they crossed the Delaware
into Pennsylvania. From thence they followed the main chain of the
Allegheny Mountains in a southwesterly direction through Wayne,
Lackawanna, Wyoming, Sullivan, Lycoming, Clinton, Centre, Clearfield,
Blair, Cambria, Bedford and Somerset Counties to the Maryland line, the
extreme southern limit of their wanderings. They remained true to this
path of migration, and those seen or killed in Huntingdon, Mifflin,
Westmoreland or Allegheny Counties were presumably driven there by dogs
or Indians; except that evidently there was a regular migration line
from Wayne County through Pike County, a region reminiscent of the
Adirondacks with its evergreens and ponds, on through Monroe County to
the Wind Gap of Northampton County. It is not clear in the writer's
mind if this was the _Original's_ ancient route into New Jersey or that
the moose noted in the Wind Gap were driven there by dogs, but it seems
a fair supposition that the Wind Gap was their route of ingress to New
Jersey. No record has been kept of the habits of the Moose during their
sojourns in Pennsylvania. It is agreed that they were of a confiding
nature, indulging in their favorite browse in close proximity to
hunters' cabins. In the winter it probably comforted itself much as it
would during mild winters in the Adirondacks. Moose which remained in
Pennsylvania in the Springtime were fond of bathing in the deep holes
of their favorite streams. The old settlers learned from the Indians
when to expect the coming of the Moose by the appearance of the Moose
Bird or Canada Jay (_Periosoreus Canadensis_). This rather thickset,
more plainly plumaged relative of the common Blue Jay of Pennsylvania,
visited Pennsylvania for the same reason as the Moose, the extreme
cold weather in the North. Dr. W. T. Hornaday in his "American Natural
History," says: "The plumage of the Canada Jay has a peculiar fluffy
appearance, suggestive of fur. Its prevailing color is ashy-gray. The
nape and back of the head are black, but the forehead is marked by a
large white spot. The wings and tail are of a darker gray than the
body. The home of this interesting bird--the companion of the Moose, as
well as of forest-haunting man--extends from Nova Scotia and Northern
New England, throughout Canada to Manitoba, and northward to the limit
of the great forests." As they came by wing it was natural that they
could reach Pennsylvania a week or ten days before the arrival of the
Moose. Their coming was the signal for the hunters to get ready and
many a moose that otherwise might have escaped, was forced to run
the gauntlet of the forewarned and fore-armed Nimrods. Probably an
occasional Moose that was belated in returning North gave birth to its
calves in Pennsylvania. Merrill says that usually two or three were
produced at a birth, making them the most prolific of the deer family.
In the extreme Southern limits the calves were born in April. For years
after the last Moose had ceased coming to Pennsylvania, the visits of
the Moose Birds set the old hunters on the _qui vive_; as in the case
of the bison in the West and the wild pigeons here, it took them a long
while to realize that the Moose would come no more. John H. Chatham,
the Clinton County naturalist and poet, saw a Moose bird in McElhattan,
that county, in the winter of 1903. It is difficult to ascertain just
who the hunters were who slew the Moose in Pennsylvania, few Indians of
note were guilty of the slaughter of their beloved _Original_; only
the starving rag-tag of the redmen helped in the final extirpation.
[Illustration: SAMUEL N. RHOADS,
The Great Authority on the Mammals of Pennsylvania.]
Doubtless if a list of male residents along the backbone of the
Allegheny Chain from Moosic Mountain, Lackawanna County, to Elk Lick,
Somerset County, of about the year 1790 could be procured, it would be
as good a roster of early Pennsylvania Moose hunters as is obtainable.
Who killed the last moose in Pennsylvania is a mooted point. Jacob
Flegal, a Clearfield County pioneer, is said to have killed the moose
whose antlers adorned Captain Logan's cabin near Chickalacamoose, one
of the Buchanans killed a moose south of the Juniata, near McVeytown,
Indians killed a moose on Moose Run, Centre County (giving the stream
its name); Landlord Heller's neighbors' dogs caused the death of the
moose, the antlers of which hung over the main entrance of the old
stone tavern in the Wind Gap for so many years. All these moose were
killed during the decade between 1780 and 1790; there is no record of
any having been seen since then. In other words, they were exterminated
in Pennsylvania about the same time as the bison. It has been stated
that "Colonel John Kelly killed the last bison in Pennsylvania in
1790 or 1800." As to definite dates, probably the moose killed by the
Buchanans on the Juniata comes as near to being known as any. The old
tavern which this family kept for many years was opened in about 1790.
The moose was killed either that same year or the year following. For
many years this tavern was known as "The Bounding Elk," being named
for a Black Elk or Moose, which some years _before_ the erection of
the building, swam the Juniata nearby, but was killed before he could
take harbor in the southerly forests. Dorcas Holt Buchanan, wife of
"The Bounding Elk's" first landlord, was herself an intrepid Nimrod.
It is recorded that on one occasion when a big deer was chased out of
Matawanna Gap into the river by dogs the young woman plunged into the
stream, and catching it by the horns, drowned it in a pool. Several of
the habitues of the tavern cheered the plucky girl from the bench at
the front door, shouting: "Go it, 'Dorkey,'" as she grappled with the
terrified "Monarch of the Glen." It is related that the trick could not
have been performed more neatly by Shaney John, an Indian hunter, who
drowned many deer in this way, or by his white disciple, "Josh" Roush,
"The Terrible Hunter" of the Seven Mountains. On another occasion
while sewing by an open window one summer evening, Dorcas noticed a
wolf looking in at her. Picking up the rifle, which she always kept by
her side, she rammed the barrel down the frightened animal's throat.
In this connection it may be well to quote Roush further on the Moose
in Pennsylvania, as related to him by pupils of Shaney John. The old
Indian said that he had as a boy feasted on "Moose nose," a great
delicacy, and once had seen a young Moose broken to draw a sledge
one particularly severe winter, at a camp near the headwaters of the
Moshannon River in Blair County. The beast hauled a load of hides
to the Bald Eagle's Nest in Centre County. An Indian hunter named
Harthegig was the trainer, while two warriors named The Big Cat and
Killbuck, accompanied the consignment to the nest. According to some
authorities the European "Elk" or Moose has performed similar service
in Sweden.
[Illustration of oppossum]