Head- Measurements of Trophies 



appearance and value of the head, making it heavier and 

 grander in every way, and being a proof of great strength 

 and vitalitv of the animal and of the horn itself. In con- 

 sequence, although the measurements of length and girth 

 generally afford a good test of the relative worth of 

 buffalo, elk, sheep and deer heads, it is not by any means 

 an infallible test. 



With moose and caribou heads the test of mere length 

 and girth is of far less value ; for many of them have 

 such extraordinary antlers that the measurements of 

 length and girth mean but little, and give hardly any 

 idea of the weight and beauty of the antlers. With 

 moose a better idea of these qualities can be obtained by 

 measuring the extreme breadth of the palmation, and the 

 extreme length from the tip of the brow point backward 

 in each horn. Caribou horns are often of such fantastic 

 shape that the actual measurements, taken in any ordi- 

 nary way, give but a very imperfect idea of the value of 

 the trophies. Very long horns are sure to be fine speci- 

 mens, and yet they may not be nearly as fine as those 

 which are much shorter, but more branched, and with the 

 branches longer, broader and heavier, and at the same 

 time more beautiful. Thus, at the Madison Square Gar- 

 den, C. G. Gunther's Sons, the furriers, exhibited one 

 caribou with antlers 50 inches long, of the barren ground 

 type, with 43 points. These horns were very slender, 

 and would not have weighed more than a third as much 

 as an enormous pair belonging to a woodland caribou, 

 which were some 10 inches shorter in extreme length, 

 and with rather fewer points, but were more massive 

 in every way, the beam being far larger, and all of the 

 tines being palmated to a really extraordinary extent. 



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