Distribution of the Moose 



The strange stiffness of joint and general un- 

 gainliness of the elk, however, were matters of 

 such general observation as to apparently have be- 

 come embodied in the German name eland, suf- 

 ferer. Curiously enough this name eland was 

 taken by the Dutch to South Africa, and there ap- 

 plied to the largest and handsomest of the bovine 

 antelopes, Oreas canna. 



In mediaeval times there are many references in 

 hunting tales to the elk, notably in the passage in 

 the Nibelungen Lied describing Siegfried's great 

 hunt on the upper Rhine, in which he killed an elk. 

 Among the animals slain by the hero is the 

 "schelk," described as a powerful and dangerous 

 beast. This name has been a stumbling block to 

 scholars for years, and opinions vary as to whether 

 it was a wild stallion at all times a savage animal 

 or a lone survivor of the Megaceros, or Irish 

 elk. In this connection it may be well to remark 

 that the Irish elk and the true elk were not closely 

 related beyond the fact that both were members of 

 the deer family. The Irish elk, which was com- 

 mon in Europe throughout the glacial and post- 

 glacial periods, living down nearly or quite to the 

 historic period, was nothing more than a gigantic 

 fallow deer. 



The old world elk is still found in some of the 



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