Q^U ADRUPEDS. 



THE ELK. 



THE Elk is rather of the buck than the flag kind, as its horns are 

 flatted toward the top j but far exceeds in ftature, being often 

 ten feet high : is called in Europe the Elk, and in North America 

 the Moofe-deer. It is tinnorous and gentle; content with its pafture, 

 and never willing to difturb any other animal, when fupplied itfelf. 



The hair is very long and coarfe : the ears a foot and an half long. 

 The upper jaw longer by fix inches, than the lowers and almoft di- 

 vided by a deep hollow : has a fort of beard under the throat, hanging. 

 from a fmall excrefcence, and a prominence in the middle of the 

 forehead. The noftrils four inches long on each fide the mouth; nofe 

 very broad ; it ufes its fore feet, which are very Iharply hoofed, to ftrike 

 down its enemies ; hind-legs much ihorter than the fore-legs ; hoofs very 

 much cloven ; colour of the body in general a hoary black, and grey 

 about the face. 



There are two kinds, the common grey moofe, which is not very 

 large, and the black moofe j all have flat palmated horns, the palm very 

 large, having a fhort trunk at the head, and immediately fpreading above 

 a foot broad, with a kind of fmall antlers, like teeth, on one of the edges. 



The grey moofe-deer is about the fize of a horfe ; as in all of this kind 

 the upper lip is much longer than the under, it is faid they go backward, 

 as they feed. Their noflirils are fo large that a man may-thrull his hand 

 in a confiderable way. 



Joflelyn, the firfl: Englifli writer who mentions the black moofe, fays, itis 

 a goodly creature, twelve feet high, with exceeding fair horns, that have 

 broad palms, two fathoms from the top of one horn to another : that it 

 is a creature, or rather a monfter of Superfluity, and many times bigger 

 than an Englifli ox. This Dudley confirms, but gives to the horns only 

 thirty-one inches between tip and tip: however, that fuch an extraor- 

 dinary animal as Joflelyn defcribes, has adually exifl:ed, we cannot doubt, 

 fincc horns twelve fetz from tip to tip have often been found in a foflil 

 Hate, as well in Ireland as in America. 



Thefe animals delight in cold countries, feeding on grafs in fummer, 

 and bark of trees in winter. The natives prepare to hunt them when the 

 fun begins to melt the fnow by day, which is frozen again at night; for 

 then the icy crufl which covers the fnow, ufually four feet deep, is too 

 weak to fupport fo great a bulk, and retards the creature's motion. The 



timorous 



