44 Ohfervations on the Elk. 



The confufion and contradiAions of preceding writers have 

 been fuppofed to be avoided or removed by the celebrated 

 Mr. Penriant in his Arjftic Zoology ; a work to which thole 

 who are better able to judge on fuch fubjecls than I am, 

 afcribe tranfcendant merit. In this work (Voj. I. p, 19, 

 art. Moofe,) the author pronounces " the elk and the moofe 

 (to be) the fame fpecies; the lad derived from Mi//u, which, 

 in the Algonkin language, fignifies that animal." And this 

 opinion lecms to have been quietly acquiefced in ; and the 

 fubftanccof Mr. Pennant's account has been copied into the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica, and perhaps ipto other works of 

 equal credit and circulation. 



An opportunity having been prefented to me, of fatisfying 

 myfelf that Mr. Pennant has erred in dcfcribing the moofe 

 and elk as a tingle animal, I think it mv duty to correal this 

 miftake of that learned and amiable naturalili; ; and I am too 

 well convinced of his love of truth and ardour for the ad- 

 vancement of natural knowledge, to doubt of his receiving 

 my corretftion with candour and delight. It mav be proper 

 for me to premife, that, from the befl: inforniatioii that I e.ir> 

 obtain, (and I have had occalion to converfe with ieveral pcr- 

 fons who profelTed to be well acquainted with both the elk 

 and the moofe,) the hiftory which has been given of the 

 moofe by that gentleman is eHentially juft in every other 

 lefpeft than what relates to its identity with the elk- 



IN Auguft and September 1797 I vifited repeatedly, in 

 eompany with Dr. Mitchill, Dr. Miller, Mr. Dunlap, and 

 other gentlemen of my acquaintance, four elks, then exhi- 

 bited in this city for gaiq. Two of them were males, which 

 the keeper affured us were but two years and a few days old ; 

 one a female, fomcwhat more than three years of age ; the 

 fourth a male fawn, a ye^r old. 'j"hcv were taken feparately, 

 a few days after their birth, and had been reared bv men for 

 the purpofe above mentioned. They \\ ere verv docile, and 

 might be handled and examined with perfeft lafetv. 



Colour. — In this they all exaftly refemble each other. In 

 the fpring tht colnm of the hair is reddidi ; it then chanircs 

 t© a greyith dun (which was its appearance when obfervcd 



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