MAMMALIA—AMERICAN ELK. 345 
contents, is a very favorite dish with almost all the savages, especially 
toward the north, where deer feed in a great degree on mosses and buds. 
This species of deer has very keen senses, especially of hearing and 
smelling, upon which its safety particularly depends. It is a very shy and 
timid animal, and the slightest noise excites his attention, and if the cause 
of alarm be continued, he exerts his strength, and dashes off in his swiftest 
career. It is said by hunters to evince a strong degree of animosity towards 
serpents, and especially to the rattlesnake, of which it has an instinctive 
horror. In order to destroy one of these creatures, the deer makes a bound 
into the air, and alights upon the snake with all four feet brought together 
in a square, and these violent blows are repeated till the hated reptile is 
destroyed. The skins of this deer continue to form a very valuable article 
of commerce, and furnish a material better adapted for the manufacture 
of gloves and other articles, than the skin of any other animal with which 
We are acquainted. 
THE AMERICAN ELK, CANADA STAG, 
OR We AP aes 
Tuis species is second in size to the moose alone. The size and appear- 
ance of the elk are imposing; his air denotes confidence of great strength, 
while his towering horns exhibit weapons capable of doing much injury 
when offensively employed. It is not uncommon to see them four or five 
feet in height, and it is said they are sometimes still higher. The elk has 
at one period ranged over the greater part, if not the whole, of this conti- 
nent. Hearne leaves no doubt of its existence as far north as fifty-three 
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1 Cervus major, Orv. 
ti 
