344 



THE OLD-WORLD ELK 



of ah elk with antlers of the simple type of those 

 exhibited was a fact of considerable interest, since 

 that country was probably the center whence both 

 the European and American races of the true elk 

 were evolved." 



But Martenson, more familiar with the elk of 

 European Russia and Siberia than any English 



Alces bedfordiae 



writer, declares that the unpalmated antlers 

 are characteristic of certain sections of European 

 Russia and Scandinavia, but are practically un- 

 known in Siberia. The absence of palmation he 

 associates with the encroachments of civilization 

 and agricultural improvement in the habitat 

 of the elk. Such change in antlers, he remarks, 

 has never been observed in the wilds of Siberia. 

 Moose antlers equally devoid of palmation are 



^'^Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1902, vol. i., pp. 

 107-109. 



