Moose 147 



The intrepid French voyageurs of the sixteenth century his- 

 were the original explorers of northern North America and 

 the first civilized men to see the Canadian Moose. 



When they met with the Wapiti, the Virginian Deer, the 

 Bear, and the Wolf, they, not being trained taxonomists, had 

 no difficulty in satisfying themselves that these were identical 

 with the animals they had known in la belle France, and named 

 or misnamed them accordingly. The Wapiti became the 

 "Cerf du Canada"; the Virginian Deer the *'Dain" or Fallow 

 Deer; the Bear and Wolf were yet more easily catalogued. 

 But when these enterprising travellers found themselves con- 

 fronted with the Moose, they were silent — nonplussed. Noth- 

 ing like this had ever been seen "at home." He was 

 "une type, un original,"^ hence the French name Vorignal, 

 I'orignat, or Vorignac. 



The educated Frenchmen who had a literary knowledge 

 of the European Elk made a feeble attempt to call this animal 

 by its European name. Lescarbot writing, about 1609, of 

 "The Chase" in New France, says:^ "But first let us speak 

 of the Elian, which they [the Indians] call Aptaptou and our 

 Basques, Orignacs. * * * It is the most abundant game 

 which the savages have after the Fish." Sagard Theodat 

 calls them "Eslans ov Orignats."^^ 



Charlevoix, in 1744, uses '^ elan" once by way of explana- 

 tion and "orignal" elsewhere throughout. Thus the lower- 

 class nomenclature won, and it holds the ground to-day.^^ 



The English had similar troubles, with even less light, 

 for they were farmers, and in information and travel they were 

 far behind the polished French chevaliers who exploited New 

 France. They got out of their difficulty by adopting the Indian 

 word "Moose," which, as pronounced in an Indian nose, is 

 mong-soa or mongswa, said to mean "twig-eater." What a 

 happy thing for our lexicographers had the early Scandinavian 



^ Madison Grant suggests that it is rather an adapted Basque word of quite differ- 

 ent signification. 



* Histoire de la Nouvelle France, Marc Lescarbot, 1618, p. 893. 

 " G. Sagard Theodat, Hist, du Canada, 1636, p. 308. 

 " F. F. X. de Charlevoix, Hist, descr. gen. Nouv. France, 1744. 



