162 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



forests of Lithuania in Poland. There a few pairs 

 still live in perfect security, for it is expressly for- 

 bidden to kill them." 



"And why do they keep those ugly oxen?" was 

 Emile 's next question. 



"They are not numerous enough to do any harm, 

 and it would really be a pity to exterminate the last 

 one of these animals that afforded our ancestors such 

 joy in the hunt. 



"The Gaels hunted the elk also, a kind of large 

 stag the size of a horse or even larger. The elk has 

 under its throat a kind of goiter or fleshy pendant; 

 its fur is short, stiff, and ash-colored; its horns, 

 called antlers, are wide-spreading and flattened, and 

 they extend in a vast triangular expanse with a 

 deeply indented outline; the weight of each antler 

 may amount to as much as thirty kilograms. That 

 must, as you see, be a fine specimen of game : an ani- 

 mal that bears on its forehead, without effort, an 

 ornament weighing a hundred weight and more." 



"A stag as large as a horse must really be a noble 

 prize for a hunter," said Louis. 



"Without his companion, the dog," Jules put in, 

 "man certainly could not have caught such an animal 

 in the chase." 



"The elk," resumed Uncle Paul, "though common 

 at that period in our forests, is found to-day only in 

 the wooded marshes of Eussia and Sweden. It also 

 inhabits, and in greater numbers, the northern part 

 of America. 



"You will notice that these two animals, the an- 



