236 THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



by this discussion has resulted the gathering of 

 the facts given in this chapter. 



The trader, the soldier, the farmer, precede 

 the naturaHst in all new territory. They name the 

 places and the things which they see, and when 

 the naturalist arrives he usually finds most of 

 the unfamiliar animals called by wrong names. 

 But it is then too late to correct mistakes. 



The earliest explorers in America began, indeed, 

 by misnaming the painted and feathered savages 

 who stood on the shore and stared in wonder at 

 the big boats which had been blown by the wind 

 from an unknown land, and which could carry a 

 whole village at a time. Under the impression that 

 the American coast was really the shore of the 

 Asiatic continent, the discoverers of the New 

 World called the natives ''Indians." As a result 

 of this mistake the word "Indian" today may 

 mean anything from a painted Kickapoo to the 

 Maharaja of Mysore or the Gaikwar of Baroda. 

 The word ''Amerind" was coined some fifteen 

 years ago in an attempt to correct the error made 

 in the time of Columbus, but such an effort is. 

 likely to be as futile as the effort to restore the 

 name "elk" in this country to its rightful possessor. 



The early settlers in the English colonies on our 



