118 HOOFED ANIMALS 



York appropriated $5,000 to be expended in restoring wild 

 Moose to the Adirondack wilderness, from which the species 

 was exterminated by man forty years ago. Up to September 

 1903, fifteen head of young Moose had been purchased, 

 chiefly in Canada, taken to the Adirondacks and liberated. 

 Unfortunately, this well-meant experiment ended in total 

 failure, and even as early as 1908 not one Moose remained 

 alive in the North Woods. 



THE ALASKAN MOOSE has obtained a place in the annals 

 of natural history to which its title is, at the least, very ques- 

 tionable. It has been described as a new species (Alee gigas), 

 and a giant besides ; and because of this, and its really immense 

 antlers, it has dwarfed prevailing ideas regarding the more 

 southern species (A. americanus) . 



For the exaggerated ideas of this animal that now quite 

 generally prevail, its antlers are perhaps chiefly responsible. 

 Occasionally they are of great size and weight, exhibiting 

 enormous spread (from 70 to 78 inches), wide palmations, 

 and also great thickness (from 1J/2 to 2 inches). Their maxi- 

 mum dimensions considerably surpass those of antlers from 

 more southern individuals. In addition to all this they oc- 

 casionally show freaky development in the shape and set 

 of the brow antlers; and occasionally the main shovel throws 

 out a palmated spur of striking form and size. Seen from the 

 front, it often happens that the antlers of an Alaskan Moose 

 present a chaotic jumble of tines and palmations. Occasion- 

 ally these odd forms are also found among the moose of Ot- 

 tawa and New Brunswick. 



But in Alaskan Moose antlers freaky development is ex- 



