29B November 1748. 



horns as are forhetimes dug out in Ireland. 

 But I was always told, that they had never 

 heard of it, and much lefs feen it : fome 

 added, that if there was fuch an animal, they 

 certainly muft have met with it, in fome of 

 their excurfions in the woods. There are 

 elks here, which are either of the fame 

 fort with the Swedt/h 'Ouqs, or a variety of 

 them : of thefe they often catch fome which 

 are larger than common, whence perhaps 

 the report of the very large animal with ex- 

 ceflive horns in North America firft had its 

 rife. Thefe elks are called Original's by 

 the French in Canada, which name they 

 hav6 borrowed from the Indians : perhaps 

 Dudley, in defcribing the Moofe-deer, meant 

 no other animals, than thefe large elks.* 



Mr. Franklin gave me a piece of a ftone, 

 which on account of its indeftru6tibility in 

 the fire, is made ufe of in New England for 

 making melting furnaces and forges. 



It 



* What gives fUU more weight, to Mr. Kalm^s opinion j 

 of the Elk being the Moofe-deer, is the name Mu/u which 

 the Algonkins give to the elk, as Mr. Kalm himfelf obferves 

 io the fequel of his work ; and this circumftance is the more 

 remarkable, as the Algonkins before the Irokeefe ox five nati- 

 ons got fo great a power in America, were the moft powerful 

 nation in the northern part of this continent ; in fo much, 

 that though they be now reduced to an inconfiderable num- 

 ber, their language is however a kind of univerfal language 

 in North America ; fo that there is no doubt, th^t the elk is 

 the famous Moofe-deer. F. 



