56 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



horns during the second summer, and these are shed in the 

 following spring, when a longer pair take their place. The 

 palmation of the horns commences with the third pair, 

 which are shed in the spring of the following year. As the 

 horns become larger and more widely palmated with each 

 succeeding year, they are dropped earlier, in January or 

 February. The horns are fully developed about the seventh 

 year; and old vigorous bulls may drop their horns as early 

 as December. 



Value. — As a game animal the value of the moose is, per- 

 haps, unexcelled by any of our larger mammals, and its 

 wide distribution in regions that are comparatively acces- 

 sible to the residents of most of our larger cities and towns, 

 particularly in eastern Canada, enhances its recreative value. 



Its value as a source of meat needs no emphasis. With- 

 out the moose the Indians in many parts of Canada would 

 face a serious shortage of food, for in many places it is the 

 chief wild-meat supply. In civilized communities, too, it 

 forms not an unimportant part of the meat supply dur- 

 ing the open season, and the wise system of protection that 

 is being followed in many provinces will undoubtedly re- 

 sult in an increase of this important adjunct to our meat 

 supply. At the same time this fine animal will afford thou- 

 sands of Canadians a great incentive to seek recreation in 

 the forest solitudes that form its haunts. 



THE BARREN-GROUND CARIBOU 

 (plates III, IV, AND V) 



Now that the buffalo has disappeared from our prairies 

 the barren-ground caribou constitutes, I believe, the most 

 abundant of the larger land mammals in the world. In its 

 extraordinary habit of migrating hundreds of miles twice a 

 year it affords a unique phenomenon. As the buffalo 

 formerly ranged the western prairies in millions, so in like 



