252 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
being prolonged and acute, and consisting of the successive sounds of the vowels 
a, 0, u, (trench,) uttered with so much strength as to offend the ear. The cry of 
the European stag, when compared to it, is dull and base, though not deficient in 
strength. The velvety covering shrivels and is rubbed off the horns of the 
Wapiti in the month of October, at the commencement of the rutting season, but 
the horns themselves do not fall until the months of March or April. -Two male 
Wapitis were found near Edmonton-house, lying dead, with their horns locked 
into each other, and the moose and rein deer are reported to have occasionally 
died under similar circumstances. The flesh of the Wapiti is coarse, and is 
little prized by the natives, principally on account of its fat being hard like suet. 
It seemed to me to want the juiciness of venison, and to resemble dry but small 
grained beef. Its hide, when made into leather, after the Indian fashion, is said 
not to turn hard in drying after being wet, and in that respect to excel moose or 
rein-deer leather. | 
The wawaskeesh of the Saskatchewan River was long considered by the 
Fur Traders as the same with the red-deer or stag of Europe, and its re- 
semblance to that animal is, indeed, so great, that, as M. F. Cuvier states, their 
specific differences become apparent only when an opportunity occurs of comparing 
them with each other, and of attentively studying their manners when they are 
placed under similar circumstances. Pennant, without having seen a specimen 
of the true wawaskeesh, or, as he writes it, waskesse, applies that name to the 
moose, probably misled by the appellation of ‘‘ grey moose,” which was given 
to the wapiti in contradistinction to the name of ‘‘ black moose,”’ which was appro- 
priated to the Cervus alces. Its trivial name of “ wapiti” has been only recently 
adopted in scientific works, but is preferable to the appellations either of elk, 
grey-moose, or red-deer, which have already been the means of confounding it 
with other species. A number of live specimens were brought from the Missouri 
to Europe some years ago, and were by several authors described as a new 
species, and introduced into the catalogues under the name of Cervus Wapitt. 
Several Hudson’s-Bay Traders, however, well acquainted with the wawaskeesh, 
recognised it at once in the wapiti shewn in England; and my recollections of two 
recent specimens of the wawaskeesh, which I had an opportunity of examining on 
the Saskatchewan, induce me to conform without hesitation to their opinion. It is 
also without doubt the Canada stag of various authors, but, as M. F. Cuvier has 
observed, the want of a pale mark on the rump in Perrault’s figure is sufficient to 
excite a doubt of its being the Cervus Canadensis * of that author. Indeed, I do 
* PERRAULT, Mem. sur les An., vol. ii. p. 45. 
