3H THE ELK AND 



alee; the pafiage of Pliny muft unquestionably 

 have been corrupted, and thele two names muft 

 denote the lame animal, namely the elk. The 

 decifion of this queftion will refolve another. 

 As the machl'u is the elk, the tar audits rnuft be 

 the rain-deer. The name tarandus is found in 

 no other author before Piiny, and has given 

 rife to various interpretations. Agricola and 

 Elliot, however, have not hefitated to apply it to 

 the rain-deer ; and, for the reafon above aflign- 

 ed, we willingly fubferibe to their opinion. Be- 

 fides, we mould not be iurprifed at the filence 

 of the Greeks, nor at the ambiguity with which 

 the Latins have mentioned thele animals ; lince 

 the northern regions were abiblutely unknown 

 to the former, and the latter had all their in- 

 formation concerning thefe regions from the re- 

 lations of others. 



Now, in Europe and Afia, the elk is found 

 only on this fide, and the rain-deer beyond, the 

 Polar circle. In America, we meet with them 

 in lower latitudes ; becaufe there the cold is 

 greater than in Europe. The rain-deer, being 

 able to endure the mo ft exceffive cold, is found 

 in Spitsbergen*; he is alfo very common in Green- 

 land, 



* In every part of Spitzbergen, the rain-cieer are found, 

 but particularly in Rchen-feld, a place which received its name 

 from the number of rain-deer it produces. They are alfo 



very numerous in Foreland, near Mufcle- Haven. We 



arrived in this country in the Spring, and killed fome rain- 

 deer, which were very meager ; from which circumftance we 

 conclude, that, notwithftanding the unfertility and coldnefs of 



Spitzbergep. 



