THE ALCINE DEER OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLDS. (13 



form of our Swodinli elk so proriaoly agree witli tliosc of 

 the North Ameriean moose in every resi)eet, tliat unless 

 some minute osteological clifferenco can be found to exist 

 (as in the case of the beavers of the two countries), 1 

 think we may fairly consider them as one and the same 

 animal."* The only difference of this nature that I ever 

 heard of as supposed to exist, consisted in a greater 

 breadth being accredited to the skull, at the most pro- 

 tuberant part of the maxillaries, in the case of the Euro- 

 pean elk. This I find is set aside in the comparative 

 diagnosis at the Museum of the lloyal College of Sur- 



• The foUowiii;^' coiroljorative Htateiueiit has appeareil in "Land ami 

 Water," from tlu; pen of a eonvspoiulent whose initialn are appenthnl : — 

 " I l)eg to state my oi)hiiou tliut the elk uf North America and ot Nurtlierii 

 Europe are iih-nticah Havinj,' lived fonr years in New Brunswick and 

 Nova Scotia, and liavinj,' had the ojiportunity since I have lieun living' in 

 Prussia of seeiiij,' tlie interesting' paintings of the elk of East Prussia, 

 executed hy Count Oscar Krochow, I have very little doulit (in the subject; 

 indc'djthe ditlerences are so trilling and so manifestl}' the result of climatic 

 iulluenceSj that as a sportsman I have no douhts whatever. The elk (I'^lund 

 thier, Elenn thier, Elech or Elk in (Jerman) is still found in the forest 

 lying between the Russian frontier and the Curische Hull", in the govern- 

 mental district of C!und)imieii, where it is strictly ju'eserved, and where 

 its numbers have considerably increased in late years. I think that only 

 six stags are allowed to be shot yearly in this district, and permission is 

 only to be obtained on very particular reconunendation to high authorities 

 in Berlin. The best ({erman sporting authorities and sjjorting naturalists 

 consider the moose deer of N(n'th Ameiica and the elk of Northern Europe 

 to be identical. The elk was not extinct in Saxony till after the year 174(5, 

 and is still found in Prussia, Livonia, Finland, Courland (where it is callcil 

 Halaiig), in the Ural, and in Siberia. Perhaps the greatest numbers are 

 fonnd in the Tagilsk forests in the Ural, where the elk grows to an 

 enormous size. The size and weight, shape of the antlers, its having 

 topmost height at the shoulder, the shape and mode of carrying the head, 

 prolongation of the snout to what is called (in North America) 'themooliie,' 

 the awkward trotting gait, and also its power of endurance and the dis- 

 tances which it travels when alarmed, all concur in establishing the identity 

 of the North American and Northern European elks. The elk of Northern 

 Europe goes with young forty weeks ; the rutting season commences in 

 Lithuania (East Prussia) about the end of August, and lasts through 

 September. As well as can be established by recent observation, the 

 dmation of life is from sixteen to eighteen years." — B. W. (Berlin). 



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