The record-union., 1898-02-20
AN ALASKAN MONARCH.
THE BIGGEST MOOSE THAT WAS
EVER SEEN.
Its Antlers Show That It Was More
Than $50 Years Of
Age.

1t is claimed the largest moose head
ever taken-one which breaks by two
and three-quarters inches the World
record of . feet 1912 inches Of antier
spread-hangs in all the perfection or
| the taxidermist's art on the wall OF
c. F. Periolat's fur establishment IN
the Masonic Temple, Chicago. 1t Was
purchased by Chicago man, who paid
some hundreds of dollars for it.
The moose which bore this head
proudly over the glaciers and through
tie primeval forests of Alaska was killed
by kusketan Tyone, an Indian, in the
Copper River country in November,
1886, The head was placed for three
months in a tree, out of reach OF wolves,
and was then brought down to Cook S
Inlet, oUO miles, on a sled. 1t was
shipped to Mr.. Periolat by G. D. Laid
well known TO coast sportsmen), FUR
trader who has been buying Alaskan
skins for the Chicago man for more
than ten years. 1t was in excellent
condition when 1t reached it's destina-
ton. There was not a hole as large
as a pinhead in the heavy hide, and
not one of the many points on the ant
lers had been biunted or broken IN
transit, although the packers Of that
section are VIGOROUSLY careless.
1t is difficult TO convey in words an
idea of the enormous size OF its head.
1t SO far transcends any yet taXider-
mixed that comparisons are useless. 1t
weighs now, filled with PAPER mache
261 pounds. When worn by the animal
| il weighed much more than 800 pounds.
From the ears to the tip OF the nose
| is not less than thirty inches. The
neck looks to be two feet in thickness.
| The massive horns have spread of six
feet one and one-quarter inches. The
| ''shovels,' as the solid spread portions
| Of the horns are technically known, are
more than an inch thick.
| Moose have been killed whose antlers
| approached the spread Of these, but
| they all lacked the excessive massive
| ness that makes the Periolat pair
lwonder and a delight to sportsmen. The
| head is really worth whatever a col
! lector can afford to pay for it, There
| is no other like it in the world. Periolat
was offered $500 advance on the pur-
chase price within an hour after the
sale was made 1t could be sold in New
York or Boston for 81 800 without the
| least trouble. Put up at auction it
would probably bring $1,000.
! Naturalists who have seen it have
been lost in admiration and wonder at
| its proportions. They deduce from the
size and granting of the antlers that the
animal could not have been less than
100 years old when slain by the cheap
rifle of a cheaper native. They esti-
mate that its hight could not have been
less than ten feet at the shoulder Mr.
Eberhardt, the first Superintendent of
Schools that Chicago ever had and an
old pursuer of the moose, says that
he has killed them weighing 500
pounds, but not one Of those which fell
to his gun could have compared in size
with the Alaskan monster He thinks
it must have weighed all of 2,0OO
pounds.
Professor Wood, a naturalist from
Rochester, n. Y, whose reputation is
international spent rapt hour in con-
temptation of it. He walked around it
and viewed it from all standpoints, felt
of the dark shaggy hair that depends
from its throat and carefully inspected
the horns.
The animal to which this pair Of
antlers belonged, - ne said, was so tall
down. You may be certain of that
These horns, when held properly, must
have beer twelve feet from the ground.
What such an animal could be capable
of accomplishing if only slightly
wounded or if angered in the bulling
season / leave you to imagine. l would
not like to have been in front of it when
it charged Many men have been kill
n l,,y, al In
in his $40 years of wandering doubtless
had more than one murder on his con-
science. supposing him to have had
such Il thing as a conscience. Every
now and then there appears among an
imals one which by enormously superior
size or superior intelligence is a phe-
nomenon This moose was phenOme-
non. Probably there is no one like him
in all Alaska to-day There may never
have beer one. The possessor of this
head is tc be congratulated. 1t makes
no difference what he paid for 1.-THE is
to be congratulated
Let into the base of the panel in
which the head is fastened is a photo
graph of the Indian who shot it's owner.
He is a very ordinary Indian. with ali
ordinary wife and an ordinary baby,
his tribe to Man Who Bagged the
Boss Moose That is what he has
done. There are sportsmen in these
United States who would have cheer
fully given thousands to stand in his
shoes that cold day in November more
than a year ago. The shot and the
way in which it was accomplished
would have been talked about by his
craot o-f9pS nhi1dran
1t seems the irony of fate that this
most magnificent of all his tribe this
king Of the snow field and the noun
tain, the mighty wanderer, who sent
his proud challenges rolling over gia-
cier and erevasse long before Napoleon
the grea. was an infant in arms. de-
cades before tea was chucked into Bos
ton harbor, long anterior to the coming
of Byron and Scott before the smoke
of single steamer defiled the air of
the ocean. before matches We're invent
ed, before men stopped swearing
"SdeathT and "By'r Lady," should
have been slain by an unwashed. un-
taught oily. decayed fsh-eating, cop
per-colored. whisky drinking, heather
ish, unappreciative, lazy son of ST.
wash, worth not more than 20 cents a
dozen aId no demand for them at that
"TKEATER SICKNESS"
4 New Disease Discovered by a
French Physician.