DEER. 



ing the animal in all the glory of his full-grown horns, 

 amid the scenery of his own wilderness, no animal 

 could appear more majestic or more imposing. It is, 

 however, the aggregate of his appearance which pro- 

 duces this effect ; for when the proportions of its 

 structure are considered in detail, they certainly will 

 seem destitute of that harmony of parts which in the 

 imagination produces the feeling of beauty. The 

 head, measuring above two feet in length, is narrow 

 and clumsily shaped by the swelling upon the upper 

 part of the nose and nostrils ; the eye is proportionally 

 small and sunk ; the ears long, hairy, and asinine ; 

 the neck and withers are surmounted by a heavy 

 mane, and the throat furnished with long coarse hair, 

 and in younger specimens encumbered with a pendu- 

 lous gland ; these give altogether an uncouth charac- 

 ter to this part of the animal. Its body, however, is 

 round, compact, and short ; the tail not more than 

 four inches long, and the legs, though very long, are 

 remarkably clean and firm ; this length of limbs and 

 the overhanging lips have caused the ancients to 

 fancy that it grazed walking backwards. The hair 

 of the animal is coarse and angular, breaking if bent." 



The elk is an inhabitant of northern latitudes ; in 

 Europe between the fifty-third and sixty-fifth degrees, 

 making a part of Prussia, Poland, Sweden, Norway, 

 Finland, Lapland, and Russia. In Asia it is found 

 farther south, from thirty-five to beyond the fiftieth, 

 spreading over Tartary, and abounding in Japan, if 

 indeed the denomination of elk is not misstated for 

 that of a rusa, or an undescribed species. In America 

 it resides between the forty-fourth and fifty-third de- 

 grees, round the great lakes, and over the whole of 

 Canada and New Brunswick. 



Its movements are rather heavy, and the shoulders 

 being higher than the croup it does not gallop, but 

 shuffles or ambles along, its joints cracking at every 

 step with a sound heard to some distance. Increas- 

 ing 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 a split fence. During its progress it 

 holds the nose up, so as to lay the horns horizontally 

 back. This attitude prevents it seeing the ground 

 distinctly, and as the weight is carried very high 

 upon his elevated legs it is said sometimes to trip by 

 treading on its fore-heels or otherwise, and occasion- 

 ally to give itself a heavy fall. It is probably owing 

 to this occurrence that the elk was believed by the 

 ancients and the vulgar to have frequent attacks of 

 epilepsy, and to be obliged to smell its hoof before it 

 could recover; hence the Teutonic name of elcud 

 {miserable), and the reputation especially of the fore 

 hoofs as a specific against the disease. 



During the winter months the elk resides chiefly 

 in hilly woods, in snowy weather seeking the covers, 

 and in clear the open spaces. In summer it frequents 

 swamps on the borders of lakes, often going deep into 

 the water to escape the sting of gnats, &c., and to 

 feed without stooping. Its usual food in winter con- 

 sists of the buds and bark of button-wood, spruce, 

 and juniper pines, birch and maple, and under the 

 snow it seeks stink wood (Anagyrisfcetida) and mosses, 

 but this is always with difficulty, for then it is obliged 

 to spread the fore legs, or even it is said to kneel. 

 The branches of trees it turns down with the horns 

 very dexterously ; but to get at the ground we have 

 been assured by Huron and the Canadian hunters, 



when the snow has fallen only a foot or two in depth, 

 that the herd, led by an old male, shovel it back, and 

 throw it over their heads, the snow falling on either 

 side, as it slides from the inclined planes of the back 

 of their horns ; meantime the fore feet of all are 

 equally engaged in striking it from under them. 



During a part of the year the herd consists of an 

 old female, two adult females, two young females, and 

 two young males; but during the snowy periods, at 

 least in America, one or more adult males are cer- 

 tainly among them, very old males alone keeping 

 aloof until the rutting season, unless the winter be 

 very severe. Several of these families keep near 

 each other, and in very cold weather they seek cover 

 together, and remain closely pressed against each 

 other, or trot in a circle till they have beaten the 

 snow down. When the rutting period commences, 

 which is about the beginning of September, the old 

 males seek the females, and expel the young, who 

 are obliged to keep aloof while the animals remain in 

 heat. At this time they will swim rivers in pursuit 

 of the females, or after them to remain concealed in 

 some of the Lake Islands. The males are then very 

 pugnaceous ; they bellow often and sink in flesh. 

 The gravid females bring forth about, the middle of 

 May, at first one, but ordinarily two calves, of a 

 brown red colour. These are so simple and void of 

 fear that in the first months they are easily taken, and 

 if in the water, where they willingly go to avoid the 

 flies, they will suffer persons in a canoe to come up 

 to them and take them by the head without appearing 

 in the least frightened. 



The dags, prickets, or incipient antlers are the first 

 year not more than an inch in length ; the second 

 they rise to a foot ; the third they are forked, and 

 the fourth they assume six snags and are somewhat 

 flattened ; the fifth year the blade is still small, but 

 their expansion from that time forward is uniform, 

 though it does not appear that the number of snags 

 ever exceed twenty-eight. In a very large specimen 

 which we saw shot, there were twenty-two, the length 

 from the head to the tip twenty-seven inches, and 

 from tip to tip across the horns three feet six ; the 

 two lower snags on each side separated by a deep 

 indenture : the weight about thirty-three pounds. 

 Old elks shed their horns in January and February, 

 and, if lean from a severe winter, in March ; the 

 younger later, till the month of May. They are 

 again completely restored in the former by the end of 

 June, and in the latter in August. 



" An elk killed in Sweden is said to have weighed 

 1200 pounds, but this must have been a very extra- 

 ordinary animal ; their height is about six feet. A 

 white specimen from Swedish Lapland, in the Munich 

 Museum, five years old, is six Rhineland feet at the 

 shoulder. A female figured by Mr. Heriot was 

 seventeen hands high ; the large male above alluded 

 to was scarce four inches more, or about six feet, but 

 he was very deep at the shoulders. Another, whose 

 antlers were still more deeply indented at the base, 

 that is with the parts corresponding to the brow and 

 bezantlers of the stag, separated from the main blade 

 by a deep intersection, was not more than seventeen 

 hands and a half high. His head, from the nose to 

 between the ears, two feet three inches ; distance 

 between the eyes eight inches ; length of the ears 

 nine inches and a half ; the lower branches or snags 

 were bifurcated and thirteen inches long, and their 

 united amount was seventeen, with the rudiment of 



