172 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 30, 1910. 
Lake, or until driven out by the deeper snow, 
and thus complete the study of the moose in his 
mountain home. 
Antlers of the Rocky Mountain Moose. 
Some years before making my first trip to the 
Upper Yellowstone, I instituted inquiries about 
the character of the horns borne by the moose 
of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, but could get 
little information either here in Washington or 
elsewhere. The only specimen located was a 
fine head obtained by Carl Rungius in the Rocky 
Mountains many years ago, and now forming 
one of those comprised in the collection of heads 
at the Bronx Zoo. Doubtless there are other 
such heads in private collections, but most of 
them are beyond certain identification through 
change in ownership or lapse of time. 
In the first trip up the valley of the Yellow¬ 
stone I came across no shed antlers, and my 
conclusions were drawn wholly from the moose 
seen along the banks of this river as we en¬ 
deavored to force our way toward the head¬ 
waters. On the second trip, after picking up 
the big antler already referred to, it seemed 
well to look for others, though I hardly ex¬ 
pected to find any in equally good condition. 
Going one afternoon into a portion of the valley 
where moose were frequently seen, I instructed 
both guides to keep a sharp lookout for horns. 
In less than half an hour we found three. Two 
were of the long, narrow type already men¬ 
tioned, while the third was entirely new in form, 
being almost as broad as long, and shaped some¬ 
what like a fan. To our delight each specimen 
was perfect, and in no wise injured by rodents 
or exposure. An hour later we came across four 
more, one almost as large and broad as the one 
found on the first day, while another was nar¬ 
row and long, the third of the fan-shaped type 
and the last one an intermediate form. A couple 
of days later we picked up two more, making 
ten in all, and what was perhaps fortunate, each 
belonging to a different bull. The fact that none 
of these antlers had been injured by squirrels, 
porcupines or mice seemed at first very strange, 
until it finally dawned on us that in these willow 
bottoms all mice and moles were repelled or de¬ 
stroyed by the annual overflow, and that the 
larger rodents were seldom seen outside of the 
pine thickets. 
Loaded down with these heavy trophies, which 
had to be transported a hundred miles by canoe 
and wagon and some three thousand miles by 
rail, we reluctantly gave up the search for more. 
But as these particular specimens represented 
the three prevailing types already established by 
the living animals, there was perhaps no occas¬ 
ion for adding to the collection. 
It may here be noted that before reaching 
civilization I had to keep one guide in camp 
nearly all the time to prevent' the ant’ers from 
being destroyed or injured by the numerous red 
squirrels, which, on several occasions, when not 
watched, entered camp and ate the points off 
several antlers. 
By the last week in September we again reach¬ 
ed the southeast arm of the lake, and on the 
same afternoon the two guides climbed the top 
of the high ridge behind camp to prepare a 
rousing signal fire for Hofer, twenty-five miles 
away at the outlet of the lake, whose launch was 
to come the day following the signal. 
T had intended joining the guides shortly be¬ 
fore the fire was started, but on partially ascend¬ 
ing the mountain I saw a cow and a calf moose 
feeding in a pond a short distance below me. 
While watching them with the aid of a power¬ 
ful glass, I saw three black looking animals ap¬ 
proaching the lake shore, followed in five minutes 
by four more. Without the aid of the glass it 
was easy to see that they were moose, as they 
seemed to be an ebony black when compared 
with the light-colored elk that surrounded them 
on all sides. These moose waded out into the 
shallow waters near the mouth of the Yellow¬ 
stone and were evidently feeding on water 
plants. To add to the excitement, three more 
moose appeared, followed almost immediately by 
five others, and these soon ranged themselves 
along the shore with the first, so that within a 
radius of less than half a mile I had seventeen 
moose in sight at one time—a picture never be¬ 
fore equalled during my twenty years’ trips to 
portions of the country where the moose were 
considered most abundant. Having heretofore 
added to my list ten moose seen in the area 
where these were now feeding, I struck the 
former entirely from my count in order to avoid 
any possibility of duplication. (See page 173.) 
It was only during the last three days that I 
saw at close range three bulls with the short, 
wide antlers of the type marked 2a and 2b. 
I herewith append the measurement of the 
antlers shown in the group marked ia, 2a. 3a 
and which constitute the three prevailing types. 
Length. Palmation. 
No. ia .28jZin. iSjdiin. 
No. 2a .15^111. 10 in. 
No. 3a . 25 J 4 in. 6 in. 
A comparison of the long, narrow type 3a, 
with the equally long but broadly palmated type 
ia and ib, affords no greater contrast, marked as 
it is, than when either of these forms are com¬ 
pared with the short, broad antlers represented 
by 2a. 
Instead, therefore, of unusual uniformity and 
a single unique type, as suggested in my previous 
article, the conclusion can now be safely reached 
that the moose of the Rocky Mountains show a 
greater variety in horn formation than elsewhere 
in its continental range. Or, in other words, ex¬ 
treme isolation, interbreeding and a high alti¬ 
tude are factors apparently working toward a 
diversity in type rather than uniformity. 
From the mouth of the St. Lawrence River 
west, on either side of the boundary waters, to 
Minnesota and Ontario, I have seen hundreds of 
moose, but all told they showed much less di¬ 
vergence in form than the moose of the Upper 
Yellowstone. 
Counting the bulls of both trips and the shed 
antlers, they divide up as given below, the 
column marked o standing for intermediate 
forms or bulls too far away to be certain of the 
type. 
No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. o Total. 
15 5 27 12 59 
A Pelican Tragedy. 
A heavy, wet snow squall caused some discom¬ 
fort on Sept. 11, and again on Sept. 20, when 
with the thermometer at 27 a much heavier fall 
occurred, bringing into harmonious color the 
valley and the hillsides with the ever-whitened 
summits. 
Owing to a late nesting season of the white 
pelicans on Molly Island, opposite camp, caused 
by an unusually high stage of water on the lake 
during July, this snow storm killed nearly a hun¬ 
dred fully grown young pelicans, and it was 
pitiful to see the surviving ones huddled up on 
the snow-covered reef, just as it was pleasing to 
see how bravely the parent birds endured the 
cold that their young might have a few more 
djys’ attention before the colony took wing for 
their Southern home. 
But later on, when this valley is filled with 
snow, and those cut-throat outlaws in nature’s 
kingdom—the cougar and the wolf—are masters 
of the situation, there can perhaps be told an¬ 
other story equally pathetic. 
Are the Young Moose Being Destroyed? 
About thirty cows were seen on both trips, 
while the total number of calves observed was 
only three—a number so amazingly small, con¬ 
sidering we were there both in August and Sep¬ 
tember when the calves usually accompany their 
mothers, that I made a special effort to find one 
whenever a cow was located, besides examining 
the runways and beaches for tracks of the young, 
but all to no purpose. And what is equally sig¬ 
nificant, we only saw four yearling moose. 
The third day up the river I ran across the 
carcass of a cow moose, killed some months be¬ 
fore by a lion or by wolves. When we remem¬ 
ber that every deer and every elk leaves this 
high altitude before November, and that the 
larger predaceous animals must either live upon 
the young moose or get out of the country, may 
it not be, with the great increase of the moose, 
that the wolves and lions have found a sufficient 
supply to maintain themselves during the winter 
without now being compelled as formerly to seek 
the lowlands? Twice we heard coyotes, appar¬ 
ently hunting in packs, and on another occasion 
timber wolves. Just back of camp we found the 
carcasses of two elk. but could not tell by what 
animal they had been killed. 
With the snow more than five feet on the level 
and all the moose segregated into yards each 
winter, far away from the nearest military post 
or station, the conditions favor destructive raids 
by the cougar and the wolf. The same peril 
exists at the head of the valley in Wyoming, 
where the hunters and trappers are excluded 
from the forest reserve, under a closed season, 
enacted by Wyoming, and there are, therefore, 
no persons in a position to hold in check a class 
of predaceous animals capable of thriving even 
under the most adverse conditions. 
It would be a great pity were this large col¬ 
lection of moose now at a standstill, with the 
certainty Of their future extinction, as must be 
the case if the young are being ruthlessly de¬ 
stroyed. The conservation of this noble animal 
on its Western range is greatly to be desired, 
and the park and State authorities should be 
aroused to action. 
The coming October I hope to get additional 
information on this subject and will report the 
results. George Shiras, 3D. 
The fifth annual report of the Department of 
Agriculture of the Province of Saskatchewan, 
covering the year 1909, announces that there 
were issued certificates on 11,080 coyotes and 
230 gray wolves, and that the amount paid out 
was $13,380. 
