44 THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



The elks reside amidst forests, chiefly for the convenience of brousing the boughs of trees, because 

 they are prevented from grazing with ease, like the other species of the deer, on account of the short- 

 ness of their neck and the length of their legs. In this respect the elk bears some resemblance to the 

 giraffe, as neither of these animals, from the peculiarity of their make, can subsist only by grazing. The 

 elk has frequently recourse to aquatic plants, which it can readily get at by wading, and then bringing 

 its mouth on a level with its food. It is related by Mr. Sarrasin, that they are very partial to the 

 Anagyris fcetida, or stinking beau trefoil, to obtain which, they will often scrape away the snow with 

 their feet, and they seldom miss the place where that herb is to be found. In passing through the 

 woods, they raise their heads to an horizontal position, to prevent their horns from being entangled in 

 the branches. They have a singular gait ; their pace being a shambling trot, but nevertheless they 

 proceed with great swiftness. In their common walk, they lift their feet very high, and will, without 

 any difficulty, step over a gate five feet high. They feed principally in the night. If they graze, it is 

 always against an ascent, which is to be accounted for by the reasons already given in detailing the 

 peculiarity of their structure. Its faculty of hearing is supposed to be more acute than its sight or 

 scent, and the almost incessant motion of its ears seems to imply that it is always on the alert to catch, 

 any sound which may be indicative of approaching danger. It is the acuteness of this faculty which 

 renders it very difficult to kill it in the summer time, as the Indians have then no other method of 

 accomplishing their task, than by creeping after the animal amongst the trees and bushes, until they 

 arrive within gun-shot of their prey. During the winter, when the snow is frozen so hard that the 

 natives can proceed upon it in their snow-shoes, they are able frequendy to run it down, for its slender 

 legs break through the snow at every step, and plunge it up to the belly. 



The elk, like most other of the deer tribe, is a ruminating animal, although that process does not ap- 

 pear to take place so periodically as with the ox or the sheep. They begin to breed in autumn, and the 

 males are at that time very furious, seeking the females by swimming from isle to isle. The female 

 produces from one to three at a birth, generally about the end of April or the beginning of May, and 

 the young follow the dam for about a year. During the winter, the}' keep in herds and in deep snows. 

 They collect in considerable numbers in the forests of pines for protection from the inclemency of the 

 weather under the shelter of those evergreens. They are very inoffensive, except in the rutting season, 

 or that they are wounded, when they will turn on the assailant and attack him with their horns, or 

 trample him to death beneath their great hoofs. 



The flesh of the moose-deer is extremely sweet and nourishing, and the Indians assert that they can 

 travel three times further after a meal of moose, than after any other animal food. The tongues are 

 excellent, but the nose is perfect marrow, and esteemed the greatest delicacy in Canada. The skin 

 makes excellent leather, being strong, soft, and light. The Indians dress the hide, and after soaking 

 it for some time, stretch and render it supple by a lather of the brains in hot water. They not only 

 make their snow-shoes of the skin, but after a chase form the canoes with it; they sew the skins neatly 

 together, cover the seams with an unctuous earth, and embark in them with their spoils to return home. 

 The hair on the neck, withers, and hams of a full-grown elk is of much use in making mattresses and 

 saddles, being bv its great length well adapted for those purposes. The palmated parts of the horns 

 are excavated by the savages, and converted into ladles which will hold about a pint. 



The female elk is smaller in size than the male, and is wholly destitute of horns ; the flesh, how- 

 ever, of the lattter is preferred, nor will the Indians eat of the flesh of the female during the breeding 

 season. 



