128 THE ELK, OR MOOSE. 



are olily about seven or eight inches in length. Da- 

 ring the third year, or the second of the horns, in 

 the animal kept alive in Paris, they only reached the 

 length of sixteen or eighteen inches, and had not 

 commenced to palmate. This might be influenced 

 by confinement. According to Hamilton Smith, 

 the incipient horns appear the first year to, the length 

 of an inch ; the second they rise to a foot ; the third 

 they are forked ; the fourth they first assume six 

 snags, and are somewhat flattened ; the fifth year the 

 blade is still small, but the expansion from that time 

 forward is uniform. The snags sometimes amount 

 to twenty-eight. 



The Elk, according to most writers, and the more 

 accurate accounts we have received, is not grega- 

 rious, one or two being only seen together, except 

 during the breeding-season. During summer, they 

 frequent the lower countries, near the borders of the 

 lakes, where they find a refuge in the waters from the 

 tormenting stings of the mosquitoes ; and during the 

 rutting season, the fringed banks and beautiful wood- 

 ed islands afford cover and shelter to the gravid fe- 

 male or the young. To these retreats the does retire 

 at this important season, the beginning of September, 

 where they are sought out by the adult males, who 

 drive away the younger, and keep off all intruders. 

 In winter, again, they frequent the wooded hills, find- 

 ing both shelter and food when the ground has re- 

 ceived its winter covering. Their necks are so short, 

 and the legs so long, that they are unable to feed on 



