450 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
they had seen in a dense cover the flanks 
of a small moose, and to make sure it 
was not a cow, the killing of which was 
prohibited by law, they crept up very 
close, when, making a slight noise to 
bring the head in view, the animal gave 
a quick glance out of the corner of one 
eye and then put down the hill as though 
the devil was after him. Not till he was 
beyond favorable rifle shot did the glass 
disclose the small horns. They were 
now pursuing it in hopes of a shot. The 
man of muscle trusted that they had not 
interfered with my getting a photograph 
of the little bull. Assuming a slight dis- 
appointment, I indicated that it was 
fully overcome by the opportunity thus 
presented of getting a photograph of a 
homo gigas and snapped him instanter." 
That this latter picture does not ap- 
pear herewith is due to the conservative 
attitude of the Editor, who "was uncer- 
tain whether some of the readers of this 
Magazine would stand for that kind of 
wild game." Hence the omission. 
A month later I heard that the little 
bull had apparently gone through the 
hunting season unscathed. This year he 
is proudly growing a pair of Y-shaped 
horns, and who knows but what in the 
course of time he will be seen stalking 
across the ruddy tundra or standing like 
a sentinel on a granite ridge wearing a 
polished and serrated crown, so remark- 
able in size and symmetry that the Alee 
gigas of the Kenai shall have in him 
that type which will represent in the 
future as in the past the largest of the 
antlered race since the days of the pre- 
historic Irish elk, 
A NKW SPORT FOR OLD SPORTSMEiN : 
HUNTING FOR SHKD ANTIvI;RS 
When a sportsman visits the distant 
wilderness and shoots a big bull elk, 
moose, or caribou, especially in the rut- 
ting season, when they are most easily 
found and killed, it is seldom that any 
of the rank flesh is used at all, and the 
horns afford the only trophy, while the 
great carcass, weighing from 400 to 1,200 
pounds, according to the species, is left 
for the ravens and the coyotes to feed 
upon. And even though such big beasts 
are killed at a time when the meat is un- 
tainted, its toughness or the great dis- 
tance from civilization prevents much of 
it being used. 
On one of my photographic hunting 
trips to Newfoundland, I met, tar in the 
interior, three Eastern sportsmen who 
had just killed nine big caribou stags, 
the three apiece allowed by law. Only 
the heads were removed, for the 3,500 
pounds of meat was then unfit fer food. 
As fully 100 non-resident sportsmen 
were there on the island, the abandoned 
carcasses might better be estimated in 
tons than pounds. With the smaller 
varieties of deer, killed usually in the 
neighborhood of settlements and gener- 
ally free from a seasonal taint, such 
wastefulness seldom occurs. 
To a sportsman controlled by the most 
ordinary sense of propriety, it must 
necessarily follow that after getting a 
fine head or two of the larger game, he 
ought then to discontinue their pursuit 
with a deadly weapon. To one who uses 
from the start, or later supplants the 
rifle with the camera, there exists every 
corresponding incentive in this more 
harmless method and a much better op- 
portunity of studying the life of wild 
animals. 
Yet it is easy to see how there may be 
those who desire, in addition to pictures 
or lantern slides, some more tangible 
evidence of their visit to the remote 
homes of our antlered monarchs, and 
this is to suggest a way of getting such 
trophies without shedding blood or wast- 
ing mountains of flesh. 
Between November i and Mareh i the 
larger bull caribou, moose, and elk shed 
their horns, and in the order given. Un- 
like the white-tail deer, which usually 
drop their antlers each fall in the dense 
coniferous forests and swamps, where 
porcupines, rabbits, red squirrels, and 
mice soon destroy or disfigure the same, 
the caribou, when feeding in the winter 
time on the moss of the wind-swept bar- 
rens, the elk upon the dry grass in the 
open parks and rolling hillsides, and the 
more northerly moose upon the bark in 
the willow thickets or second - growth 
hardwood forests, usually cast their ant- 
lers in places harboring few if any form 
