t. ', 



''il 



ni, I 



if: 





'■■'■' 



40 FOREST LIFE IN ACAD IE. 



being quite superficial. The males have a fleshy appen- 

 dage to the throat, termed the bell, from whicli and the 

 contiguous parts of the throat long black hair grows 

 profusely. A long, erect mane surmounts the neck 

 from the base of the skull to the withers. Its bristles 

 are of a lighter colour than those of the coat, and 

 partake of a reddish hue. At the base of the hair 

 the neck and shoulders are covered with a quantity of 

 very fine soft wool, curled and interwoven with the hair. 

 Of this down warm gloves of an extraordinarily soft 

 texture are woven by the Indians. 



Moose hair is very brittle and inelastic. Towards its 

 junction with the skin it becomes wavy, the barrel of 

 each hair suddenly contracting like the handle of an oar 

 just before it enters the skin.""' 



Gilbert White, speaking of a female moose deer which 

 he had inspected, says : " The grand distinction between 

 this deer and any other species that I have ever met 

 with consisted in the strange length of its legs, on which 

 it was tilted up, much in the manrier of birds of the 

 gralloe order." This length of limb is due, according to 

 Professor Owen, "to the peculiar length of the cannon 

 bones (metacarpi and metatarsi)." 



The other noticeable peculiarities of the elk are the 



* In " Aiuitoniical Descriptions of Several Ci'catures Dissected l)y the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, Ijy Alexander Pitfield, F.R.S., 1688," 

 the above peculiarity is thus described : — " The hair was three inches long;, 

 ! (j and its biqness equalled that of the coarsest horsehair; this bigness grew 



' ' 5|! lesser towards the extremity, Avhich was pointed all at once, making, as it 



were, the handle of a lance. This handle was of another colour than the 

 rest of the hair, being diaphanous like the bristles of a hog. It seems that 

 this part, which was finer and more flexible than the rest of the hair, was 

 so made to the end, that the hair which was elsewhere very hard might 

 keep close and not stand on end. This hair, cut through the middle, 

 appeared in the microscope spongy on the inside, like a rush." 



