56 THE ELK. 



described the interior of North America, assert, that in certain 

 places, both horns and bones have been found of a size so enor- 

 mous, as to show that they have belonged to an animal of a 

 larger species than any now known, and which is supposed to 

 be at this time, through some unknown cause, extinct. The 

 European elk, however, generally grows to the height only of 

 seven or eight feet, and the length of ten feet from the muzzle 

 to the rump. Its colour is mostly a hoary brown, and its hair 

 long and coarse, like that of the bear. The horns are very large 

 and spreading. Its pace is a high trot, shambling and inelegant; 

 but it runs with great swiftness. In passing through woods, it 

 carries its horns horizontally, in order to prevent them from be- 

 ing entangled among the branches. 



In Canada, they have two different methods of hunting the 

 elk, which are equally curious. The first is this : before the 

 lakes are frozen, a number of inhabitants assemble in canoes, and 

 form a vast crescent on the water, each end reaching the shore, 

 while a party on the land surround an extensive tract. They are 

 attended by dogs, and press forward with loud and clamorous 

 shouts. The elks, alarmed by the noise, fly to the lake, and 

 plunge into the water, where they are easily killed by the people 

 in the canoes. The other method requires more preparation. 

 The hunters enclose a large space of ground with stakes and 

 branches of trees : the bottom opens into another enclosure, 

 which admits of no egress, into which they drive the elks, where 

 they are entangled in snares, or shot. The flesh of the elk is ex- 

 tremely palatable and nutritive ; the tongue is excellent ; and the 

 nose is esteemed the greatest delicacy of Canadian epicurism. 

 The skin makes excellent buff leather, being strong, soft, and 

 light ; and of it the Indians make their snow-shoes, and sometimes 

 their canoes. The elk is an inhabitant of all the northern parts 

 of America, and also of Europe and Asia, from Norway to the 

 easternmost limits of Chinese Tartary ; but is never found in 

 any warm climate. That it once existed in Ireland is evident, 

 from the horns which have been dug up in different parts of that 

 island, and which, by their enormous size, seem to corroborate the 

 almost incredible accounts that some naturalists have given, of 

 the magnitude of the largest breed of these animals. 



Elks are the easiest to domesticate and tame, of any of the 

 deer kind. They will follow their keeper to any distance from 

 home, and return with him at his call, without any difficulty. 

 Mr. Hearne informs us, that an Indian, at the factory at Hudson's 

 Bay, had, in the year 1777, two of them so tame, that when he 

 was on his passage from Prince of Wales' Fort, in a canoe, they 

 always followed him along the banks of* the river ; and at night, 

 or on any other occasion, when he landed, they generally came 



