THE ELK. 4. r >9 



to the eagerness with which it is hunted, it is daily becoming 

 scarcer, has already abandoned many of its former haunts, and 

 the period of its entire extinction is probably not far distant. 



The males, which are much larger than the other sex, are 

 nearly six feet high when full grown j and several have been 

 killed in the British North American colonies, weighing from 

 five to seven hundred-weight. The horns, which are possessed 

 by the male only, and are shed in the spring, are wide-spreading, 

 palmated, very thick and strong towards the base, and, in old 

 specimens, weigh fifty or sixty pounds 5 the head is of great 

 length in proportion to that of the neck - } the nose is black and 

 protruded j the eyes are large, and below either of them there 

 is (as in most other deer) a slit, nearly an inch in extent, and 

 through which it has been supposed to breathe and smell when 

 hard run, or when the muzzle is under water while drinking, 

 but this aperture has no communication with the nose : the 

 legs are long, and the tail very short. Its coarse, long, and 

 hairy fur becomes very thick on the approach of winter ; but 

 it somewhat varies with the age of the animal, from a blackish 

 brown, to a greyish colour, or to a pale dun. 



