NOTE ON A GASTROLITH FOUND IN A MOOSE. BY PROFESSOR 

 D. FRASER HARRIS, M. D., C. M., D. Sc., F. R. S. E., 

 Dalhousie University, Halifax. 



Read, 20th January, 1913. 



On first October, 1905, a large bull moose (Alces Amer- 

 canus), eight or nine years old, and weighing 850 pounds 

 was shot by Lieut. L. G. Matterson, R. A., at Ship Harbour, 

 Long Lake, about ten miles south-east of Middle Mus- 

 quodoboit, Halifax county, N. S. The guide, William H. 

 Day, on opening the animal, found a hard oval concretion 

 in its stomach. This was given to Mr. John W. Willis of 

 Halifax, who possesses the mounted head of the animal. 

 In May, 1912, Mr. Willis presented the calculus to the 

 Provincial Museum (accession No. 3785). Mr. Piers asked 

 me to examine the concretion and report on its chemical 

 constitution. On cutting the calculus open carefully with 

 a fret saw, I found it was a laminated concretion of oval 

 section which now measured 1.90 inches in length (the end 

 having broken off). The original length had doubtless 

 been about 2.40 inches. The diameter of the section is 

 1.50 inches; and the thickness 1.15 inches. There are about 

 seven concentric layers, every alternate one being somewhat 

 more pronounced and more easily separated. In its centre 

 was embedded a flat, smooth piece of slate not fully exposed 

 in the section, but measuring 0.85 of an inch where it was ex- 

 posed. 



On submitting a fragment of the outer shell to chemical 

 investigation, the substance proved to be calcium ortho- 

 phcsphate, with no obvious admixture of organic matter. 

 According to the statement made by Mr. Day, communi- 

 cated by Mr. Willis, the calculus was found in the stomach 



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