THE MOOSE. 45 



settler, but, less excusably, at the hands of men claiming 

 to be sportsmen, yet slaughtering indiscriminately old and 

 young, pregnant mothers, and half-grown " calves," and 

 leaving the useless carcasses to rot on the ground. Such 

 deeds have been perpetrated to within a very recent 

 period in Nova Scotia — deeds which, to the disgrace of 

 our country, characterize the presence of Englishmen alike 

 in the elephant jungles of the East, the buffalo prairies of 

 North America, and the noble plains of South Africa. It 

 is indeed to be feared that in time the Moose may 

 become as completely extinct as its prehistoric congener, 

 the so-caUed " Irish-elk,"* in comparison with which the 

 proportions of the Moose sink into insignificance. 



Perhaps some of the most perfect existing specimens of 

 this magnificent deer are those in the possession of Sir 

 George Abercromby, at Forglen House, N.B. ; namely, two 

 entire heads, with part of a third, and portions of four 

 skeletons, which were found on his Irish property at 

 Fermoy, at a depth of fourteen feet below the surface of a 

 peaty swamp, resting on a solid bed of clay and gravel, 

 and lying close together, as if washed in by some eddy. 



These, or rather, similar remains, have often been 

 erroneously confounded, under the name of elk, with 

 C. alces; but the Irish "Big-horn," or Megaceros, is not 



Mer/aceros Hibernicus. 



