742 A general Review of the Species of [No. 117. 



Expedition to the source of St. Peter's River ;" but Lewis and Clark oc- 

 casionally observed them upon the same plains with the Bisons, as in 

 page 82 of their work, where it is stated, that " fifty-two herds of 

 Buffalo, and three of Elk [Wapiti] were counted at a single view !" 

 I have been informed, however, by a gentleman who has travelled 

 much in the western regions of North America, that they never asso- 

 ciate with the Bisons, and it is very rarely that both species may be 

 seen at one view : though Catesby asserts, that " they usually accom- 

 pany Buffaloes, with which they Qdid, in his time,] range in the upper 

 and remote parts of Carolina, where," he remarks, " as well as in the 

 other colonies, they are improperly called Elk." Keating mentions '* a 

 herd of fifty or sixty Elk," which some of his people " approached on 

 horse-back, as near as they could, without alarming them, when the 

 party dismounted, and crept for about a quarter of a mile on 

 their hands and knees, leading their horses until they came within 

 eighty yards, when they all fired, and one of the herd fell. A 

 member of the party then mounted his horse, and pursued the 

 herd for more than a mile, but his horse was too much alarmed by 

 their appearance to be urged on near enough to allow pistol-shot to 

 take effect. While in pursuit of them, he observed the Elk in the 

 rear would frequently stop to look at him [^standing at gaze, as it is 

 termed, like all other ruminants]. When in herds they are easily 

 overtaken, but when they are alone it is much more difficult. This 

 animal is represented, however, as short-winded."* It is probable 



noticed), which, inhabiting the same region with the so-called Indians, is sometimes 

 even worse styled — the Indian Buffalo, In India, the word Bison is, in like manner, 

 attached to a species which is not a Bison, namely, the Gaour, (Bos Gaurus) ; and 

 Capt. Lyon mentions three distinct species of animals inhabiting the mountains to the 

 south of Fezzan, all of which he erroneously calls Buffaloes, though two at least of them 

 are not even Bovine. Those who write on subjects of Natural History should be 

 more definite in their choice of vernacular appellations than has hitherto been custom- 

 ary, at least in the English language, and in time such errors may be eradicated ; 

 though not before the city of Buffalo, in North America, and the Elk River (so nam- 

 ed from the number of Wapiti Stags, not Elks, that are found on its banks), have per- 

 petuated the memory of them in these established denominations. The name Buffalo 

 derives from the term Buhalus of the ancients, which was applied to the true Indian 

 species ; otherwise, it has been remarked, on the subject of purely fortuitous coinci- 

 dences of the kind, a legitimate derivation would have seemed to occur in Bceufa Veau ! 

 * Keating's "Narrative" vol. ii. p. 1. " A large herd of Elk" is also mentioned 

 in vol. i,, p. 303 ; and I could cite other instances of Horses being much frightened 

 at the sight of these creatures. 



