CHAPTER III. 



%nmxnnxdm. 



npHOUGH greatly diminished in numbers during the 

 -■- last half century, and year by year retreating 

 within more circumscribed limits, the Moose {Cervus 

 alecs') still ranges the wooded country north of Quebec, 

 away up to Hudson's Straits ; is found eastward as far as 

 the Saguenay River, and frequents in considerable abun- 

 dance the districts of Rimouski, Gasp^, and Bonaventure. 

 Westward of Quebec, it exists only on the northern 

 side of the St. Lawrence, but below the city is found 

 on both shores of the river. 



The North American Elk, or Moose — the latter term 

 being a corruption of the Indian synonyme "Moosoa" — I 

 believe to be specifically identical with the Elk* of Northern 

 Europe and Asia. For excepting that the Moose is of 

 greater size than the European animal, there does not 

 appear, on the most careful examination, to be any real 

 difference whatever between them. The form and groAvth 



* The term Elk (in Scandinavia Elch) is in America applied only to 

 the Wapiti. 



