ARCTIC TEKiX KNJOYIKG A RIDE diX A DEAD LIMB I-'I.OATIXr, IX THE CENTER OF SKIEAK 

 I.AKE: THE BIRDS ARE I.OATH TO LEAVE WHEN PHOTOGRAPHED AT SIX EE.ET 



and two others, equally big, were at the 

 lick one morning on arrival, but could 

 not be photographed from the water. All 

 the others, with one exception, were 

 cows or bulls ranging from one to five 

 years of age. The exception noted was 

 an enormous bull that came down wind 

 on an unused runway to the rear of the 

 blind just when I was eating lunch. He 

 gave a loud grunt behind my back and 

 I nearly choked with surprise. In the 

 excitement he got away, leaving only a 

 mental picture of a frightened moose 

 and a flustered photographer. 



I saw no calves and only their tracks 

 in some of the heavily forested valleys 

 about the lake. Occasionally large moose 

 could be seen a mile or two away feed- 

 ing in and out of the willows near the 

 summit of the mountains. 



The light-brown color, noticeable the 

 first day, was repeated in the case of all 

 the other moose, the shade approaching 

 very closely that of the great brown bear 

 of the inland. Judging from the .shreds 

 of the spring-shed hair and that of sev- 

 eral abandoned hides near hunting 

 camps, the winter pelage nnist be a light 

 liiift'-brown in color. In the extreme 

 sijutliern range most moose are dark- 



colored in summer, looking almost black 

 at a distance, with a somewhat lighter 

 shading on the legs and flanks. 



Some of the pelts examined show that 

 all the hair of the narrow abdominal 

 strip was glossy black, while that of the 

 side and back had buii'-brown tips, with 

 a pure wdiite body to the root, so that, 

 with the darker tips clipped, the animal 

 would appear to be white from the ven- 

 tral strip upwards. 



The present classification of the giant 

 moose depends chiefly upon skull charac- 

 ters and colors of the male, as shown by 

 j\Ir. G. S. ]\Iiller, Jr., in the original de- 

 scription of the species, but it will doubt- 

 less prove that a careful examination of 

 the pelage colors, superficial or otherwise, 

 as in the case of Oz'is dalli and Ovis 

 stonci, will aft'ord even better grounds 

 than were originalh" supposed for recog- 

 nizing the Alaska moose as a distinct 

 form. The greater average size of the 

 horns should also form a distinct char- 

 acter. 



Se\'eral encounters with regular pa- 

 trons permitted observations somewhat 

 out of the ordinary and may be quoted 

 in part : 



446 



