HEADS AND HORNS 



201 



best handles, however, are provided by a deposit 

 of silver on the bone Itself. The silver is nearly 

 3^6 of an inch thick, and conforms to the shape 

 of the bone. It covers about a third of its length, 

 at the larger end. The silver is deposited by an 

 electroplating process, but few electroplaters or 

 silver workers know the secret of making such 

 handles. 



Like others of the deer family, but unlike domes- 

 tic cattle, the hair grows upward from the nose of 

 the moose — a fact which should be borne in mind 

 when brushing the dust from a mounted specimen. 

 The hide of the moose is much inferior to either 

 buckskin or caribou skin when tanned. It is 

 porous and easily stretched. When made up into 

 moccasins woodsmen say that it begins to leak 

 twenty-four hours before it begins to rain.^° Moose 

 skins are valueless for rugs owing to the brittleness 

 of the hair.^^ 



»° Oil- tanned moose skin — the oil, however, being extracted in finish- 

 ing — is very pliable, and a strand a quarter of an inch in width will 

 support a tensile strain of 250 pounds. It is easily soiled, and is not 

 adapted even for house moccasins. The gambler or bark process of 

 tanning yields a skin with less elasticity, and much less tensile strength, 

 but the skin makes good moccasins for house wear. A moose hide 

 which will weigh when green, with the hair, fifty pounds, will weigh 

 when tanned about twelve pounds. 



If the head of a moose is to be mounted it should be removed from 

 the body without many hours' delay, or else the entrails should be drawn. 

 If the carcass is left undrawn overnight the scalp is likely to be worthless 

 in the taxidermist's hands, and the flesh will be unfit for food. 



