56 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
horns during the second summer, and these are shed in the 
following spring, when a longer pair take their place. The 
palmation of the horns commences with the third pair, 
which are shed in the spring of the following year. As the 
horns become larger and more widely palmated with each 
succeeding year, they are dropped earlier, in January or 
February. The horns are fully developed about the seventh 
year; and old vigorous bulls may drop their horns as early 
as December. 
Value.—As a game animal the value of the moose is, per- 
haps, unexcelled by any of our larger mammals, and its 
wide distribution in regions that are comparatively acces- 
sible to the residents of most of our larger cities and towns, 
particularly in eastern Canada, enhances its recreative value. 
Its value as a source of meat needs no emphasis. With- 
out the moose the Indians in many parts of Canada would 
face a serious shortage of food, for in many places it is the 
chief wild-meat supply. In civilized communities, too, it 
forms not an unimportant part of the meat supply dur- 
ing the open season, and the wise system of protection that 
is being followed in many provinces will undoubtedly re- 
sult in an increase of this important adjunct to our meat 
supply. At the same time this fine animal will afford thou- 
sands of Canadians a great incentive to seek recreation in 
the forest solitudes that form its haunts. 
THE BARREN-GROUND CARIBOU 
(PLATES III, IV, AND V) 
Now that the buffalo has disappeared from our prairies 
the barren-ground caribou constitutes, I believe, the most 
abundant of the larger land mammals in the world. In its 
extraordinary habit of migrating hundreds of miles twice a 
year it affords a unique phenomenon. As the buffalo 
formerly ranged the western prairies in millions, so in like 
