THE RAIN-DEER. 347 



f or too credulous, it muft be peculiar to the elks 

 ' they mention. ' We can add our teftimony to 

 that of the gentlemen of the Academy ; for, in 

 the female elk we had alive, there was no bunch 

 either under the chin, or on the neck. Linnae- 

 us, however, as he lives in the country inha- 

 bited by elks, and ought to have a more com- 

 plete knowledge of them than we can pretend to, 

 mentions this bunch on the neck, and even 

 makes it an elTential character of the elk: Alces y 

 cevuas cornibus acaulibus palmatis i caruncula gut- 

 turali\ Linn. Syfi. Nat. p. 92. There is no o- 

 ther method of reconciling the aiTertion of Lin- 

 naeus with our negative evidence, but by fup- 

 pofmg this bunch, guttural caruncle* to be pecu- 

 liar to the male, which we have never feeii. 

 But. though this were the cafe, Linnaeus ought 

 not to have made it an eflential character of the 

 fpecies, fince it exifts not in the female. This 

 bunch may likewile be a difeafe, a kind of wen, 

 common among the elks ; for, in Gefner's * 

 two figures of this animal, the firft, which wants 

 horns, has a large fklhy bunch on the throat ; 

 and, in the fecond, which reprefents a male with 

 his horns, there is no bunch. 



In general, the elk is much larger and ftrong- 

 er than the Mag or rain-deer f. His hair is i'o 



rough, 



* Gefner, hift. quad. p. i. & 3. 



•f The elk exceeds the rain-deer in magnitude, being equal 



to the largeft horfe. Betides, the horns of the elk are much 



ter, about two palms broad, and have very few branches. 



His 



