Photo by George Shnas, 3rd 
THE LARGE COW MOOSE THAT EDUCATED HERSELF (SEE PAGE 447) 
She stood broadside, head up, and unquestionably looking at me out of one eye, but to all 
appearances utterly indifferent to my approach 
of rodent life, and hence in stich locali- 
ties one may find many horns and most 
of them in perfect condition. 
Such as have become bleached from 
long exposure can be stained to their 
natural color, and, when mounted on a 
w^ooden base the fac-simile of a frontal 
"bone, resemble in all respects those of a 
freshly killed animal. While it has long 
t)een the custom in this country to mount 
the head and neck, in time the shrinking 
skin, the twisted ears, and the ravages 
of the moths greatly impair the work of 
the ordinary taxidermist, so that the old 
English method of simply using the 
liorns and part of the skull has much to 
recommend it ; for such ancient speci- 
mens after untold centuries are often 
superior to those in this country after a 
lapse of a few years. 
Of course, in the mounting of shed 
antlers, only the largest and most sym- 
metrical should be used, in contrast to 
the habit of mounting many inferior 
heads ; but a great deal of pleasure can 
be had and much information obtained 
by collecting in the wilderness all sizes 
and shapes of horns, and it is immaterial 
that in many cases only a single antler 
can be found. 
During explorations covering three 
seasons in the Rocky Mountains, I dis- 
covered along the upper Yellowstone 
River, partly in the park and partly in 
Wyoming, a very large number of moose 
occupying a valley four miles wide and 
thirty miles long, at an elevation of 8,000 
feet, where, isolated in the wildest and 
least frequented portion of the country, 
they had thrived unknown to the public. 
A'ly notes and photographs, covering ob- 
servations of more than 500 moose and 
in a country where they were then sup- 
posed to be practically extinct, was most 
451 
