I fclt' 8T RATIOS Si . 



NOTE 10. 



, Forster, Baffon, and indeed all the european naturalists, are post 

 eive that our moose is the elk. u The name, says Pennant, is derived froaj 

 HUISU, "which, in the algonquin language, signifies that animal. The eqglish 

 .used to call it the black moose, to distinguish it from the stag which they named 

 the gray moose. The French call it original." On comparing the animals call 

 d moose and elk, in this country, we find, at once, a specific difference in their 

 size, their colour, their horns, and their residence ; and a great difference in ev- 

 ery other respect, except their being of the genus cervus. We are then certain*, 

 that the moose is not the animal denominated by us, the elk ; but the question 

 still remains open, whether the moose is not the elk, or cervus alces, of- Europe, 

 described by Linnaeus as having palmate horns, with short or no beams, and c 

 maculate throat. They certainly assimilate in many respects. 



Another question still remains for decision ; whether the animal, which we 

 call the elk, is the elk of Europe. I think there can be no hesitation in saying, 

 that it is not. Charksvoix says, that the Canadian stag is precisely the same 

 as that of France ; and Buffbn says, that it is only a variety of the european stag, 

 or hart j that it differs from it in length of horn only, and in the direction of thfi 

 antlers, which is sometimes not straight, as in the common stag, but turned back 

 ward so that the end of each points to the stem of the horns. Buffon, vol. 4 



Catesby gives the following account of these animals, which appears to be 

 very judicious and correct. " The moose, . or elk, alee maxima americana n 

 gra, is a native of New England and the more northern parts of North Ame 

 ica ; and is rarely seen south of latitude forty, and consequently never in Car- 

 olina : he is six feet high, about the size of a middle sized ox. The male has pal- 

 mated horns, not unlike those of the german elk, but differs in having branched 

 brow autlers. The stag of America resembles the european red deer, in the 

 colour, shape, and form of the horn, though it is a much larger animal and a 

 stronger make ; his horns are not palmated, but round ; a pair of which weigh? 

 jpwards of thirty pounds; they usually accompany buffaloes with whom they 

 range, in droves, in the upper and remote -irts of Carolina, where, as well as in 

 our other colonies, they are improperly called elks. The french, in America, call 

 thus beast the Canadian stag. In New England, it is called the gray moose, to 

 distinguish it from the black moose. 1 " Natural History of the Carolinas, vol. \ . 



Pile saw plenty of these animals on the Mississippi, sometimes the distance 

 was four fee*, between the horns, aud one hundred and fifty of them were fre- 

 <yieut!y in a flock. Pennant says, that stags abound in the mountainous south.- 



