With moose and caribou heads the test of mere length and girth is of far less value; for many of them have such extraordinary antlers that the measurements of length and girth mean but little, and give hardly any idea of the weight and beauty of the antlers. With moose a better idea of these qualities can be obtained by measuring the extreme breadth of the palmation, and the extreme length from the tip of the brow point backward in each horn. Caribou horns are often of such fantastic shape that the actual measurements, taken in any ordinary way, give but a very imperfect idea of the value of the trophies. Very long horns are sure to be fine specimens, and yet they may not be nearly as fine as those which are much shorter, but more branched, and with the branches longer, broader and heavier, and at the same time more beautiful. Thus, at the Madison Square Garden, C. G. Gunther's Sons, the furriers, exhibited one caribou with antlers 50 inches long, of the barren ground type, with 43 points. These horns were very slender, and would not have weighed more than a third as much as an enormous pair belonging to a woodland caribou, which were some 10 inches shorter in extreme length, and with rather fewer points, but were more massive in every way, the beam being far larger, and all of the tines being palmated to a really extraordinary extent.
TABULATED SERIES
With name of owner, and locality and date of capture.
BISON BULL.
| Girth. | Length. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | P. Liebinger, Western Montana, '93 | 12-1/2 | 19 |
| 2. | Theodore Roosevelt, Medora, N. D., Sept., '83 | 12-3/4 | 14 |
| 3. | Theodore Roosevelt, S. W. Montana, Sept., '89 | 12-1/2 | 17-1/2 |
No. 2 was an old stub-horn bull, the animal being bigger in body than No. 3, which, like No. 1, was a bull in the prime of life.
F. Sauter, the taxidermist, exhibited a head killed in Montana in 1894, which measured 14 inches in girth and 18 inches in length.
In Ward's book the horns of the biggest bison given measure 15 inches in girth and 20-7/8 inches in length.
BIG-HORN SHEEP.
| Girth. | Length. | Spread. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4. | Geo. H. Gould, Lower Cal., Dec., '94 | 16-1/4 | 42-1/2 | 25-3/4 |
| 5. | G. O. Shields, Ashnola River, B. C. | 16-1/4 | 37-3/4 | 22-1/2 |
| 6. | Arch. Rogers, N. W. Wyoming | 16 | 34 | 17 |
| 7. | Arch. Rogers, N. W. Wyoming | 15-1/2 | 33-1/2 | 23 |
| 8. | T. Roosevelt, Little Mo. River, N. D. | 16 | 29-1/2 | 18-1/2 |