THE NAMES OF THE MOOSE 



Agassiz called the moose Cervus lobatus, and others 

 have used the names Alces palmatus, Alces musway 

 Alee alces, and so on through a very imposing hst. 



Accepting Judge Caton's dictum that the 

 European elk and the American moose are indis- 

 tinguishable/^ we are led to the following equation: 



Europe America 

 Elk (England) 

 Elch (Germany) 

 Elg (Sweden, Norway) 

 Elen (Germany) 

 Elan (France) 

 Eland (Holland) 



There is an increasing tendency among Euro- 

 pean writers to recognize and use the word " moose 

 as an equivalent of elk. Since Americans cannot, 

 at this late day, correct the error of their fore- 

 fathers, and say "elk" when they mean Cervus 

 alces, and "wapiti" when they mean Cervus 

 canadensis, possibly the name "elk" in Europe 

 will ultimately give way to the name used by the 

 North American Indians when they spoke of the 

 great wood-eating deer. 



To the list of misnomers must be added the 

 name of the so-called Irish elk. He was not an 

 elk at all, but an animal more nearly allied to the 

 fallow deer. He is known to scientists as Cervus 



Summer in Norway (Chicago, 1875), p. 327. See supra, p. 57. 



= Alces ^ 



Moose (U. S., Canada) 

 Moose-deer (U. S., Canada)' 

 Flat-horned elk (Rocky Mts.) 

 Orignal (Canada) 

 Orignac " 

 Orignat " 



