33° 



THE ELK AND 



motion confifis not of bounds or leaps, like the 

 ftag and roebuck : It is a kind of trot, but fo 

 quick and nimble, that they will pafs over near- 

 ly the fame ground in an equal time, without 

 being fatigued; for they will continue to trot in 

 this manner during a whole day, or even two 

 days *. The rain-deer keeps always on the 

 mountains f; and the elk inhabits low grounds 

 and moid forefts. Both go in flocks like the 

 ftag ; and both may be tamed ; but the rain- 

 deer is more eafily tamed than the elk. The 

 latter, like the flag, has never loft its liberty. 

 But the rain-deer has been rendered domeflic by 

 the molt ftupid of the human race. The Lap- 

 landers have no other cattle. In this frozen 

 climate, which receives only the mod oblique 

 rays of the fun, where the night and the day 

 constitute two feafons, where the earth is cover- 

 ed with fnow from the beginning of autumn to 

 the end of fpring, where the bramble, the juni- 

 per, and the mofs, conftitute the only verdure of 

 the fummer, man can never hope to nouriin 

 cattle. The horfe, the ox, the fheep, and all 

 our other ufeful animals, could never find fub- 



fiftence 



* Theorignal neither runs nor bounds ; but his trot equals 

 the courfe of the itag. We are allured by the Savages, that 

 he may be trotted three days and three nights without rett- 

 ing ; Voyage de la Hofitan, torn. \. p. 85. 



t Rangifer habitat in Alpibus Europae et Afiae, maxime 

 feptentrionalibus ; victitat lichene rangifero .... Alces ha- 

 bitat in borealibus Europae Afiaque populctis ; Linn. Sjft. 

 Nat. p« 67. 



