68 



THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



The hair is coarse and brittle, the color assuming 

 various shades of brown, brownish black, and 

 gray. Only the extremities are dark, the hair 

 near the skin being white. Albino moose are 

 unknown. The long hairs, or bristles, of the 

 mane and throat are sometimes used by Indians 

 for ornamenting moccasins, belts, pouches, and 

 similar articles made of mooseskin or buckskin. 

 The hairs are dyed in various colors, and are 

 commonly employed in applique patterns, as 

 porcupine quills and beads arc used. From four 

 to ten bristles are used together, according to the 

 design, and they are stitched down with cotton 

 thread.^ The hairs themselves are too brittle to 

 be threaded into a needle and drawn through 

 buckskin. 



The "bell" is common to males and females. 

 Its physiological purpose is unascertained. It 

 usually shows its best development in young bulls, 

 from ten to fifteen inches being the ordinary 

 length. In an older specimen the bell would be 

 shorter and wider, and a bull in his prime, with 

 massive antlers, commonly has merely a wattle 

 or dewlap in place of the bell. A cow moose is 

 said to have been taken in Manitoba in 1903, 



* See "Huron Moose-Hair Embroidery, " by F. G. Speck, in American 

 Anthropologist^ Jan.-March, 191 1. 



