86 



THE TWO-TOED ARTIODACTYLA. 



animal, because naturalists have for the most 

 part observed it only in the Scandinavian 

 Alps. But these highlands have the char- 

 acter of stony plateaux, which indeed are 

 intersected by profound gorges, but spread 

 out into enormous and mostly marshy flats. 

 Upon these high moss-grown table-lands the 

 reindeer is in its element, but not among 

 mountains with narrow valleys with steep 

 sides and without vast level stretches like 

 our Alps or the Pyrenees. I have hunted 

 the chamois and the wild reindeer; there is 

 not the least comparison to be made between 

 these two animals; the one climbs and leaps, 

 the other strides and trots. 



The life of many northern tribes is depen- 

 dent on the domesticated reindeer, which 

 nevertheless remains an awkward stubborn 

 animal, difficult to manage. The Laplander 

 makes use of everything derived from it, 

 even the contents of its stomach, which he 

 boils as a vegetable, and the still warm 

 marrow, which he eats raw. The reindeer 

 is even made use of as a beast of draught. 

 It is led about in large flocks under the 

 conduct of small intelligent dogs, which are 

 highly esteemed by their owners. But the 

 reindeer always remains half wild, and is 

 very apt to return to a state of freedom. It 

 never becomes tame enough to allow of the 

 female being milked before it has been bound 

 by means of a noose thrown over the antlers. 

 The pleasure of riding in a sledge drawn by 

 reindeer is one which most people would 

 gladly leave to the Laplanders, who are 

 accustomed to the somersaults and all the 

 other disagreeables which a wild, stubborn, 

 and stupid mule could cause. 



The largest, but at the same time the 

 ugliest of all the deer family is the Elk [Alces 

 palmatus {Machlis)\ PI. XXVII. This 

 species, which at the present day is confined 

 to the tracts bordering on the Baltic on the 

 east and north and to Canada, was during 

 the middle ages an object of the chase in 

 Central Europe, from whence it is now 



entirely banished. In Prussia, where the elk 

 was formerly very abundant, there is now 

 only a single forest, that of Ibenhorst, near 

 Tilsit, where a herd has been preserved 

 through the adoption of severe protective 

 measures. The elk ranges from the Baltic 

 provinces, Finland, and the south of Scan- 

 dinavia, throughout Asia as far as the shores 

 of the Pacific Ocean near the Amur. 



It is a large animal, about six and a half 

 feet high at the withers, with a short thickset 

 body and long thick legs, with narrow hoofs 

 connected by loose skin, and accessory hoofs 

 long enough to touch the ground. The 

 head is very ugly; the ears are so large that 

 the female, being without antlers, resembles 

 at a distance a large ass; the eyes are small 

 and without expression. But what specially 

 disfigures the head is the enormously thick 

 and broad loose upper lip, which hangs down 

 over the mouth like a rounded curtain. It 

 is very flexible, and serves admirably for 

 tearing off the shoots, the young twigs, and 

 the bark of the shrubs and trees on which 

 the elk prefers to feed. The mufile formed 

 by this upper lip gives to the head an ex- 

 tremely ugly termination. The fur consists 

 of a short and fine down and long brittle 

 hairs of a gray colour, which form a goat's- 

 beard at the chin, a sort of mane on the back, 

 and a tuft at the end of the short tail. The 

 antlers of the male acquire a characteristic 

 form only in the fifth year. It is only then 

 that the antlers begin to spread out so as to 

 form a broad hollow shovel, on which the 

 tines, the number of which increases with 

 age, are in most cases set in two groups. 



The Canadian Elk, the Moose-deer of the 

 Americans, the Orignal of the French Cana- 

 dians, is only a geographical variety, which 

 when full-grown is larger and stronger than 

 the elk of the Old World. It answers to our 

 elk as the wapiti does to our stag. 



The elk inhabits damp woods containing 

 marshes and peat-bogs here and there. It 

 feeds almost exclusively on willow leaves. 



