THE ELK, OR MOOSE. 127 



but shuffles or ambles along, its joints cracking at 

 every step witb a sound heard to some distance. In- 

 creasing its speed, the hind feet straddle, to avoid 

 treading on its fore heels, tossing the head and 

 shoulders like a horse about to break from a trot to 

 a gallop. It does not leap, but steps without effort 

 over a fallen tree, a gate, or split-fence. During its 

 progress, it holds the nape up, so as to lay the horns 

 horizontally back." 



The form of the upper lip is perhaps one of the 

 most marked characters of the animal, and, as we 

 shall presently see, is undoubtedly an organ of pre- 

 hension, necessary for its mode of life, in which it 

 is assisted by the lengthened tongue, possessing great 

 flexibility. The upper lip, like most of the stags, is 

 not finished by a naked muzzle ; it is entirely co- 

 vered with hair, and has only in the centre a small 

 space entirely naked, and without glands. The 

 edges of the lips, on the contrary, are covered with 

 glands, and, towards their commissures, have nume- 

 rous fleshy appendages, of four or five lines in depth, 

 and almost like tentacula. 



In its winter drees, the Elk is of a brownish-black, 

 almost inclining to the latter colour, with the excep- 

 tion of the limbs, which are greyish-yellow or fawn 

 colour. The mane is of a fawn colour : the sides 

 of the head of a clear dull greyish-brown. In 

 this state it is represented in the accompanying 

 Plate. In the dress of summer, it is always of a 

 browner tint. During the second year, the horns 



