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 NEW SPORT FOR OI<D SPORTSMEN : 

 HUNTING FOR SHED ANTLERS 



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, far 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 for 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 March 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 



