80 A'OTJiS AND 



era tract of Siberia, where they 2row to a size far superior to what is kuowu in 

 Europe. The height of a grown hind is four feet nine inches and a half, its 

 length, eight feet, that of its head, one foot eight inches and a half. Arctit 

 Zoology, vol. 3. 



Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia, says, perhaps it will be found tha t 

 there is, 



1. .The moose, black uad gray ; the former being said to be the male, the lat- 

 ter the female. 



2. The caribou or renne. 



3. The flat horned elk, or original. 



4. The round horned elk. 



The black moose and the third, are the same animal; and the gray moose and 

 the fourth. The moose has large flat palmated horns ; our elk has round cylin- 

 drical horns. The former is confined to the regions of the north ; the latter ex- 

 tends itself from Canada to the south. 



The animal called caribou in Canada is the rein deer, or cervuK taraudus, of 

 the old world. Buffon says, that the elk is found only on this side, and the 

 rein deer beyond the polar circle in Europe and Asia. In America, we meet 

 with them in lower latitudes ; because there the cold is greater than in Europe. 

 And, he says, that this animal formerly existed in the forests of Gaul and Ger- 

 many ; if so, there is no improbability in supposing that he formerly visited UP 

 in search of his favorite food the rein deer moss. 



Prom the chaos which has existed on this subject, we may extricate order and 

 light ; and I think we are well warranted in saying, 



1. That the animal which we call the elk, is not the cervus alces ; but that it 

 is either a variety of the stag, red deer, or hart of Europe ; the cervus elephus, 

 or a distinct species of cervus. 



2. That it is not the moose, and that the moose, according to the opinion of' 

 the most eminent naturalists, is a variety of the cervus alces. 



And, 3. That besides these two animals, we have the rein deer, or cervus ta- 

 randus, of the old world, called with us the caribou. 



Buffon says, that the cervus virgiuianus, is only a variety of the cervus dama, 

 the commou or fallow deer of Europe. 



Have we any other species of cerv 3 ? 



Have we the roe deer, or cervus capreolus ? Button says it is found through- 

 out all North America. 



Have we the red deer, cervus elephas ? Jefferson says that it is an americaa 

 animal, and that it weighs two hundred and seventy-three pounds. 



What animal is that called by Lewis and Clarke in their Travels, the mule 

 deerP 



