American Big Game in Its Haunts: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club
History
American Big Game in Its Haunts: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club
Big game hunting -- United States
In the upper Ottawa country, when they first began to be hunted by
sportsmen, the writer remembers landing from his canoe on the bank of a
small stream, and walking around a marsh a few acres in extent to look
at the moose tracks. Fresh signs, made that morning, were everywhere in
evidence, and it had apparently been a favorite resort all summer. Snow
fell that night and remained continuously on the ground for two weeks,
when the writer again passed by this swamp and found that during the
interval it had not been visited by a single moose. The moccasin tracks
had been scented, and the moose had left the neighborhood. A moose with
a nose as sensitive as this would find existence unendurable in New
Brunswick or Maine.
I have already referred to the relative size of the antlers of the moose
from different localities, and called attention to the inferiority of
the heads from the extreme east. Large heads have, however, come from
this section, and even now one hears of several heads being taken
annually in New Brunswick running to five feet and a little over in
spread. The test of the value of a moose head is the width of its
antlers between the extreme points. The antlers of a young individual
show but few points, but these are long and the webbing on the main
blade is narrow. The brow antlers usually show two points. As the moose
grows larger the palmation becomes wider, and the points more numerous
but shorter, until in a very old specimen the upper part of the antler
is merely scalloped along the edge, and the web is of great breadth. In
the older and finer specimens the brow antlers are more complex, and
show three points instead of two.
[Illustration: "BIERSTADT" HEAD. KILLED 1880, BOUNDARY OF NEW BRUNSWICK
AND MAINE EXTREME SPREAD, 64! INCHES]
A similar change takes place in the bell. This pendulous gland is long
and narrow in the young hull, but as he ages it shortens and widens,
becoming eventually a sort of dewlap under the throat.
One of the best heads from Maine that I can recall, was in the
possession of the late Albert Bierstadt, a member of the Boone and
Crockett Club. The extreme spread of these antlers was 64-1/4 inches. This
bull was killed in New Brunswick, near the Maine line, some twenty years
ago; another famous Maine head was presented to President Cleveland
during his first term. Photographs of both of these heads appear
herewith. Many very handsome heads have been taken in the Ottawa
district, sometimes running well over five feet. It is safe to assume
that a little short of six feet is the extreme width of an eastern head.
The moose of the Rocky Mountains are relatively smaller than the eastern
moose, and their antlers are seldom of imposing proportions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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