270 



ANIMALS OF 



the natives pursue, and track it in the snow. 

 The accounts of this animal are extremely 

 various ; some describing it as being no higher 

 than a horse, and others above twelve feet 

 high. 



As the stature of this creature makes its chief 

 peculiarity, so it were to be wished that we 

 could come to some precision upon that head. 

 If we were to judge of its size by the horns, 

 which are sometimes fortuitously dug up in 

 many parts of Ireland, we should not be much 

 amiss in ascribing them to an animal at least 

 ten feet high. One of these I have seen, which 

 was ten feet nine inches from one tip to the 

 other. From such dimensions it is easy to per- 

 ceive that it required an animal far beyond the 

 size of a horse to support them. To bear a 

 head with such extensive and heavy antlers, 

 required no small degree of strength ; and 

 without all doubt the bulk of the body must 

 have been proportionable to the size of the 

 horns. I remember some years ago, to have 

 seen a small moose-deer, which was brought 

 from America, by a gentleman of Ireland : it 

 was about the size of a horse, and the horns 

 were very little larger than those of a common 

 stag : this, therefore, serves to prove that the 

 horns bear an exact proportion to the animal's 

 size ; the small elk has but small horns ; 

 whereas those enormous ones, which we have 

 described above, must have belonged to a pro- 

 portionable creature. In all the more noble 

 animals, nature observes a perfect symmetry ; 

 and it is not to be supposed she fails in this 

 single instance. We have no reason, therefore, 

 to doubt the accounts of Jocelyn and Dudley, 

 who affirm that they have been found fourteen 

 spans ; which at nine inches to a span, makes 

 the animal almost eleven feet high. Others 

 have extended their accounts to twelve and 

 fourteen feet, which makes this creature one 

 of the most formidable of the forest. 



There is but very little difference between 

 the European elk and the American moose- 

 deer, as they are but varieties of the same ani- 

 mal. It may be rather larger in America 

 than with us ; as in the forests of that un- 

 peopled country, it receives less disturbance 

 than in our own. In all places, however it is 

 timorous and gentle ; content with its pasture, 

 and never willing to disturb any other animal, 

 when supplied itself. The European elk 

 grows to above seven or eight feet high. In 



the year 1742, there was a female of this ani- 

 mal shown at Paris, which was caught in a 

 forest of Red Russia, belonging to the Cham 

 of Tartary ;* it was then but young, and its 

 height was even at that time six feet seven 

 inches ; but the describer observes, that it has 

 since become much taller and thicker, so that 

 we may suppose this female at least seven feet 

 high. There have been no late opportunities 

 of seeing the male ; but, by the rule of propor- 

 tion, we may estimate his size at eight or nine 

 feet at the least, which is about twice as high 

 as an ordinary horse. The height, however, 

 of the female, which was measured, was but 

 six feet seven inches, Paris measure; or almost 

 seven English feet high. It was ten feet from 

 the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail ; 

 and eight feet round the body. The hair waa 

 very long and coarse, like that of a wild boar. 

 The ears resembled those of a mule, and were 

 a foot and a half long. The upper jaw was 

 longer by six inches than the lower ; and, like 

 other ruminating animals, it had no teeth, (cut- 

 ting-teeth, I suppose the describer means.) It 

 had a large beard under the throat, like a 

 goat ; and in the middle of the forehead, be- 

 tween the horns, there was a bone as large as 

 an egg. The nostrils were four inches long on 

 each side of the mouth. It made use of its 

 fore-feet, as a defence against its enemies. 

 Those who showed it, asserted that it ran with 

 astonishing swiftness ; and that it swam also 

 with equal expedition, and was very fond of 

 the water. They gave it thirty pounds of 

 bread every day, besides hay, and it drank 

 eight buckets of water. It was tame and 

 familiar, and submissive enough to its keeper. 

 This description differs in many circumstan- 

 ces from that which we have of the moose, or 

 American elk, which the French call the ori- 

 ginal. Of these there are two kinds, the com- 

 mon light gray moose, which is not very large; 

 and the black moose, which grows to an enor- 

 mous height. Mr. Dudley observe.;, that a 

 doe or hind of the black moose kind, of the 

 fourth year, wanted but an inch of seven feet 

 high. All, however, of both kinds, have flat, 

 palmed horns, not unlike the fallow dt-er, only 

 that the palrn is much larger, having a short 

 trunk at the head, and then immediately 

 spreading above a foot broad, with a kind of 



a Dictioiinaire Raisonee des Animaux, Au Nom, Elan. 



