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.

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.