APPENDIX 



383 



"Both the moose and beaver are fond of mountain ash," he 

 writes, "though both prefer poplar, which, by the way, is the 

 main winter food of the moose on the Kenai. This district 

 has been largely burned over, with a resultant second growth 

 that is very favorable for the moose. I would attribute the 

 size and massiveness of the antlers on the Kenai, however, 

 largely to favorable climatic conditions. The Peninsula is 

 practically an island, with an equable climate, winter and 

 summer, thus favoring the moose physically, and insuring a 

 variety and seasonal uniformity in vegetable growth. Unlike 

 the islands, however, which are drenched with rain in the 

 summer, and smothered with snow in the winter, the Kenai 

 has only a fair amount of rain and a light snowfall. In the 

 interior range of the moose, on the mainland, there is much 

 aridity and very severe winters, adversely affecting the moose 

 directly, and rendering uncertain the food supply." 



Professor William F. Ganong questions the importance 

 of the food factor in antler-building. "If the underlying idea of 

 the relation of size of moose antlers to food," he writes, "is that 

 certain kinds of food stimulate the production of larger antlers, 

 or that the antlers grow bigger because of the accumulation of 

 good food, I do not think the idea is correct physiologically. 

 I think the size of antlers, like the size of the animal, is a 

 specific character, fixed in heredity. Deficient food can dwarf 

 the antlers, as it can dwarf the animal: sufficient food can 

 permit the antlers to reach the full specific size, but extra- 

 abundant food cannot make them any larger, unless it acts in 

 some way as a chemical or physical stimulus, of which we 

 have no evidence. This is the way it seems to me, but other 

 biologists might see it differently, so perhaps it is not worth 

 while to argue the fine point." 



This subject, and that of the "carrjang capacity" of forests 

 for moose — the number of animals which can subsist on a 

 tract of a given size — will perhaps be subjects of study at the 

 Roosevelt Wild-Life Forest Experiment Station, which has 

 lately been established in connection with the New York State 



