THE MOOSE OR FLAT-HORNED ELK 
Hence the names l' original, Vorignat and Vorignac grew into common use 
amongst them. Charlevoix (1744) speaks of it as “ elan,” but the early 
English settlers adopted the Cree or Ojibway Indian name of “ moose,” 
said to mean “ Twig -eater,” which has held good ever since. The Chipe- 
wyan name is Ten-nee and the Sioux Tahg-chah or Tah. 
With the exception of the wapiti and the red deer, the horns of the moose 
are the most desirable trophy that can fall to the hunter’s rifle, and it is 
cheering to think that whilst nearly all other heads of the highest class are 
becoming year by year more and more difficult to obtain this is not the 
case with the moose, which in its north-western range is as abundant as 
ever it was. Any young hunter going to Alaska for the first time has a chance 
of obtaining a moose trophy such as our fathers would never have seen 
or even imagined was in existence. 
The following are some of the best moose heads that have been killed in 
the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, where the deer are more plentiful and grow 
finer antlers than in any other locality: 
The two which head the list are both 78 J inches (span). The first (said 
originally to have been 84 inches) now in the Field Columbian Museum at 
Chicago, and another, said to be the same size, in the possession of Mr 
Sheard of Tacoma, of which I possess a photo. Neither of these heads are, 
however, superior to the 74|-inch head shot by Mr A. S. Reed, and now 
in the National Collection of Heads and Horns at New York. Reckoned 
by points and breadth of palm this is probably the best in the world, but 
it may not be better than the head shot by Mr P. Neidieck which I saw and 
measured in the German court of the Vienna Exhibition in 1910. That is 
an ideal head, both for quality, beauty and size. Its span is 74 inches. 
Mr Sheard, of Tacoma, also has a wonderful head of 73£ inches span 
and the Duke of Westminster has a grand head of 72 inches, which I 
bought for his father. Sir Edmund Loder has a massive head of 71 inches 
with enormous palms, and Captain Radclyffe, Colonel Claude Cane and 
other English sportsmen also have splendid examples. Mr Maurice Egerton 
tells me that he saw the head of a moose being brought down the Yukon 
River a few years ago which was said to be 80 inches across, but un- 
fortunately he had not an opportunity of measuring it. Undoubtedly some 
wonderful moose exist in the Yukon forests and will yet be obtained. One 
of 70 inches was killed a few years ago and exhibited at Vancouver. 
That giant moose exist in other parts as well as in the Kenai is un- 
doubted. Mr Warburton Pike, whose accuracy cannot be disputed, told 
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