CHAPTER XVIII 



A SCHOLAR OF THE WILDERNESS 



No temple but the wood, 



No assembly but the horn-beasts 



As You Like It 



Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, 

 Deform'd, unfinish'd 



King Richard III 



He was furnished like a hunter 



As You Like It 



THE moose of Alaska, Alces gigas, is an even finer 

 beast than his relative Alces americanus, and the 

 antlers obtained in the Kenai Peninsula of late years 

 have surpassed in size, spread, and splendour the best 

 trophies Canada has ever produced. Alces ameri- 

 canus is a glorious creature, but the Alaskan cousin 

 carries off the palm. 



The record moose head of the world came from the 

 Kenai district, and was taken by a native from an 

 animal discovered drowned in the river, caught in 

 some scrub alders overhanging the banks. The span 

 of antlers of this wondrous find came out at eighty- 

 one inches, and the trophy eventually found its way 

 to a New York club. All moose heads shrink a little 

 in the drying, even when the antlers are wedged out 

 with bits of wood betwixt them and the skull. Very 

 often a head loses as much as two inches in the drying 



process. 



292 



