RECORDS OF BIG GAME 



Skull and Antlers of Alaskan Elk. 

 From a specimen in the possession of the Duke of Westminster. 



The 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. The 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. Usually the antlers expand after a short distance 

 into a broad palmation or "shovel," 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. The tail is very short. From birth to old age 

 elk are uniformly coloured ; the general tint of the hair, which is long, 

 coarse, and somewhat brittle, varying from yellowish grey to deep 



