MAMMALIA. 933 
England, and one was sent to his late Majesty, from Churchill, in Hudson’s Bay. 
Naturalists have generally considered the moose deer to be the same species with 
the elk of the northern parts of the old world*. The Anglo-Americans, however, 
having given the trivial name of elk to the Canada stag or red deer, some confusion 
' has occasionally crept into the accounts published by travellers, of the size, man- 
ners, and geographical distribution of the moose ; and it has also sometimes been 
confounded with the rein deer, from its possessing, in common with that animal, 
palmated horns. The fact, that few of the American quadrupeds have been found 
precisely similar to their European representatives, ought to excite doubts of the 
identity of the moose and Scandinavian elk, until it is established by satisfactory 
comparisons. ‘This does not appear, however, to have been hitherto done, and 
some differences between them are hinted at by La Hontan. Major Smith also 
mentions, that the lower parts of the antlers of the American animal more often 
separate into branches than those of the European one. 
Du Pratz informs us that, in his time, moose deer were found as far south as the 
Ohio; and Denys says, that they were once plentiful on the island of Cape Breton, 
though at the time that he wrote they had been extirpated. At present, according 
to Dr. Godman, they are not known in the state of Maine; but they exist in consi- 
derable numbers in the neighbourhood of the bay of Fundy. They frequent the 
woody tracts in the fur countries to their most northern limit. Several were seen on 
Captain Franklin’s last expedition, at the mouth of the Mackenzie, feeding on the 
willows, which, owing to the rich alluvial deposits on that great river, extend to the 
shores of the Arctic sea, in lat. 69°. Further to the eastward, towards the Copper- 
mine river, they are not found in a higher latitude than 65°, on account of the scarcity 
on the Barren Grounds of the aspen and willow, which constitute their food. [have 
not been able to ascertain whether they occupy the whole width of the continent or 
not. Mackenzie saw them high up on the eastern declivity of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, near the sources of the Elk river ; but I suspect that they are rarely, if ever, 
found to the westward of the mountains, Authors mention that the moose gene- 
rally form small herds in Canada. La Hontan, who travelled in that country in 
1683, says, that whilst he accompanied the Indians they hunted the elk with dogs, 
when there was a crust on the snow; and that, after a chase of a few leagues, they 
generally found ten, fifteen, or twenty of them in a body: in three months his party 
killed fifty-six, and might have taken as many more. It is probable, however, that 
* According to Buffon, the elk was unknown to the Greeks ; and the word alce first occurs in the writings of Julius 
Cesar, and was probably adopted by him from the Celtz. Its Celtic name is elch; and Swedish, lg. 
2H 
