THE ALASKAN MOOSE. 



(Alices gigas.) 



The Alaska Moose is the largest of the 

 deer family in America. Alces gigas is 

 a comparatively new species, having been 

 described in 1899. At present it is still 

 quite numerous along the Yukon and its 

 tributaries, though the influx of prospec- 

 tors and the settling of the Klondike re- 

 gion has already resulted in a marked 

 falling off in Moose and an increase of 

 Moose meat. In the winter this is the sta- 

 ple diet of both Indians and whites, and 

 on account of the high price paid — one 

 dollar or two dollars per pound — many 

 prospectors have found Moose hunting 

 even more remunerative than mining. 



Alces gigas was first collected by Mr. 

 Dall De Weese, of Canon City, Colo., who 

 spent three months, in 1898, on the Kenai 

 Peninsula, Alaska, in quest of large mam- 

 mals for the United States Museum. 

 From the six specimens of the Alaskan 

 Moose which he collected it is seen that 

 this animal differs considerably from the 

 Moose (Alces americanus) inhabiting 

 the east United States and eastern and 

 central Canada, being larger and more 

 richly colored and having a much heavier 

 mandible. Its general color is a grizzle 

 of black and wood brown, darkening 

 along the spine and changing abruptly to 

 clear black on chest, buttocks and lower 

 part of sides. 



The horns of the Moose are very char- 

 acteristic, being of immense size and pali- 

 nated before and behind so that an aver- 

 age full-grown pair weighs seventy 

 pounds and shows a spread of forty-six 

 inches between the points of the posterior 

 branch as against a length of thirty-eight 

 inches. Our illustration is a photograph 

 of one with horns of remarkable size, 

 measuring about seventy-one inches from 

 tip to tip in a line across the head. It 

 is not until the third year that the horns 

 are palmated, and they increase in size 

 from year to year. In the winter the old 

 horns are cast, but they sprout again in 



the spring, and by June have shed their 

 velvet and appear a beautiful white. Al- 

 though so large and characteristic, it is 

 not known that they serve any more use- 

 ful purpose than as weapons during the 

 rutting season. In running through the 

 woods the Moose throws his head back, 

 and, despite the spread and weight of 

 his horns, he is able to move about with- 

 out breaking a twig. 



The clumsy shape of the head is accen- 

 tuated by the hump on the nose, which is 

 due to the excessive development of the 

 nasal septum and of the upper lip, which 

 is long and supple, and adapted to brows- 

 ing rather than to cropping grass. The 

 short neck of the Moose would in any 

 case interfere with the cropping of grass, 

 even if it were found in the snowy in- 

 lands of Alaska. Its common food is the 

 twigs and bark of willows and birches, 

 which it rides down to reach the tops, 

 lichens and mosses and the aquatic plants 

 of summer. 



In winter the~-Moose herd together 

 in the snow, forming great tramped-down 

 places called moose yards by hunters. In 

 summer comes the rutting season, in 

 which the great males shake their antlers 

 and attack any animal that comes their 

 way. With summer comes mosquitoes 

 also, and these pester the Moose to such 

 an extent that they are galled to a greater 

 fury. So it is that the Moose is a most 

 dangerous animal in the time when the 

 ground is clear, the swamps full of mos- 

 quitoes and his horns new-stripped of vel- 

 vet for the fray. 



When the snow lies so deep that he 

 cannot travel even with his long legs, the 

 enemies of the Moose have him at a dis- 

 advantage, and often the yards are at- 

 tacked by wolves or bears or, worse yet, 

 by agile men on snowshoes. Killing in 

 the snow is not recognized as legitimate 

 sport, and is resorted to only by skin 

 hunters or men lacking in the higher 



134 



