396 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



the moose (C. alces), the woodland caribou (C. tarandus), the 

 Barren Ground caribou (C. tarandus arcticus), the mule deer 

 (C. macrotis), the Columbian black-tailed deer (C. columbianus], 

 the Virginian or white-tailed deer (C. virginianus), and a little- 

 known beast called by Caton C. acapulcensis. 



With the last-named a sportsman is likely to have very 

 little to do, as its range is extremely limited and its size in- 

 significant ('weight from 30 to 40 Ibs., height 24 ins. at the 

 shoulder, and length from the end of the nose to the root 

 of the tail 44 ins. '; cf. Caton's ' Deer of America,' pp. 121, 

 122), whilst its antlers, though quaint, are hardly worth taking 

 as a trophy. Caton gives a cut of the antlers of a full-grown 

 buck of this species. Of the originals of that cut Caton says 

 that they measure in length 7 ins. and 3 lines, in circum- 

 ference above the burr 2 ins., and that they are more 

 pal mated than the horns of any other American deer except 

 moose and caribou. For further information on this deer the 

 reader is referred to Caton's work, which should be in the library 

 of every man interested in natural history. Of the other seven 

 species of American cervidae there is much to be said, and 

 little space left to say it in. 



(i) MOOSE (C. alces) 



Of all deer extant to-day, the moose is the largest. Of all 

 earth's animals, except perhaps old Haploceros, he bears most 

 plainly still the impress of Nature's 'prentice hand when she 

 made things huge and roughhewn, and had no time to polish 

 her work and smooth off the corners. Evolution does not seem 

 to have affected the moose, for to-day he wanders along that 

 great chain of lakes from the Arctic to the Atlantic, from the 

 mouth of the Mackenzie River to the St. Lawrence a survival 

 of the earth's dawn rather than a commonplace nineteenth- 

 century deer. All sorts of stories are told as to his weight and 

 size. Caton, who is always careful not to exaggerate, puts the 

 weight of a bull moose at from 700 to 1,400 Ibs., and his height 

 at 6 ft. at the withers. The largest pair of horns of which we 



