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Skull and Antlers of Alaskan Elk. 
From a specimen in the possession of the Duke of Westminster. 
The ELK or MOOSE (Alces machlis). 
Elk are the largest members of the deer tribe, and distinguished 
by their ungainly form, long limbs, broad, produced, and flabby muzzle 
(all of which, except a small triangular patch below the nostrils, is 
covered with hair), the presence of a pendulous hairy organ (the so- 
called “ bell”) on the throat of the males, and the form and position 
of the antlers in that sex. The latter are set on the skull with their 
bases at right angles to the middle line of the face, and have neither 
brow nor bez tines. Usually the antlers expand after a short distance 
into a broad palmation or “shovel,” carrying a number of snags on the 
outer border. In young elk each antler is divided in a fork-like 
manner into a small front and a larger hind portion. The main hoofs 
are long and pointed, and the lateral pair large; there is a gland and 
tuft of hair both on the hock and hind cannon-bone, the latter being 
situated high up. The tail is very short. From birth to old age 
elk are uniformly coloured ; the general tint of the hair, which is long, 
coarse, and somewhat brittle, varying from yellowish grey to deep 
blackish brown above, with the legs lighter, and being usually darker in 
the American than in the European race. The height varies from 5 feet 
