Penfyhania, Philadelphia. 233 



fcription of the Moofe-deer* which is found in 

 North America. On my travels in Canada, I 

 pften enquired of the Frenchmen, whether there 

 had ever been feen fo large an animal in this 

 country, as fome people fay there is in North 

 America, and with fuch great horns as are fome- 

 times dug out in Ireland. But I was always told, 

 that they had never heard of it, and much lefs 

 feen it : fome added, that if there was fuch an 

 animal, they certainly muft have met with it in 

 fome of their excurfions in the woods. There 

 are elks here, which are either of the fame fort 

 with the Swedish ones, or a variety of them : of 

 thefe they often catch fome which are larger than 

 common, whence perhaps the report of the very 

 large animal with exceffive horns in North Ame- 

 rica find had its rife. Thefe elks are called 

 Orignals by the French in Canada, which name 

 they have borrowed from the Indians : perhaps 

 Dudley, in defcribing the Moofe-deer, meant no 

 other animals than thefe large elks. * 



MR . Franklin gave me a piece of a ftone, which, 

 on account of its indeftruftibility in the fire, is 

 made ufe of in New England for making melting 

 furnaces and forges. 



* WHAT gives flill more weight to Mr. Kalm 1 * opinion of the 

 Elk being the Moofe-deer^ is, the name Mu/u, which the dlgonkins 

 give to the elk, as Mr. Kalm himfelf obferves in the fequel of his 

 work ; and this circumltance is the more remarkable, as the Al- 

 gcnkins, before the Irokeefe or five nations got fo great a power in 

 America, were the moft powerful nation in the northern part of 

 this continent ; infomuch that, though they be now reduced to 

 an inconfidcrable number, their language is however a kind of 

 univerfal language in North America fo that there is no doubt 

 that the elk is the famous Moojc^deer. F, 



*^ 



