RECORDS OF BIG GAME 



Skull and Antlers of Male Alaskan Elk. 

 From an Alaskan specimen in the possession of the Duke of Westminster. 



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. These 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. In the common species they expand after a short distance into 

 a broad palmatton, 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. 



