48 Account of the 



pursued by the hunter, he has been known to trot at 

 the rate of sixteen or twenty miles an hour. His 

 hoofs being much cloven, he makes a great clattering 

 with them. 



If we may depend upon the reports of our hunters, 

 derived, it is probable, from the Indians, the Elk lives 

 to the age of sixty or seventy years. I suspect, how- 

 ever, that very little confidence should be placed in 

 information of this kind. The age of animals is one 

 of the greatest desiderata in the science of zoology. 

 I may add, that the cervina senectus*, or old age of 

 the stag, is an ancient fablef. 



The Elk might be rendered a very useful animal. 

 When taken young, he is easily tamed, becoming an 

 inoffensive and manageable creature. It is said, these 

 animals have been used in sleighs, like the rein-deer, 

 in some parts of Upper- Canada. I cannot learn, that 

 our Indians have ever domesticated any of them. 

 There is, however, a circumstance mentioned by 

 Adair, which would, at least, lead one to suppose that 

 the Indians, in some parts of America, have actually 

 seen the Elk in a domesticated state. Some of the 

 southern tribes call this animal Hissooba, which sig- 

 nifies " the horse that carries a burthen. 1 ' This, as 

 Adair observes, suggests the idea, " that they for- 



* Juvenal, Satira xiv. I. 251. 



t See C. Plinii Secundi Naturalis Historisc. Lib. viii. cap. xxxi'u 

 See also Oppian, De Yeiiatu. Lib. ii. I. 291, Sec. 



