354 



THE OLD-WORLD ELK 



push himself forward with his feet." Georg L. 

 Hartig, who wrote thus in 1817," was stating a 

 belief which was quite common in his time. 

 Some asserted that the elk was able to make 

 rapid progress across swamps in this way, though 

 only by the expenditure of great exertion. Bujack 

 discredits the entire story, however, calHng atten- 

 tion to many known instances where elk have been 

 found helpless in swamps, and have escaped from 

 their predicament only by the aid of men, who 

 brought ropes for use in effecting a rescue. 



As late as 1838 Lorenz Oken wrote: "It is said 

 that the ermine creeps into the elks' ears while 

 they sleep, and bites them so that in their frenzy 

 they dash their heads violently against any object, 

 or throw themselves over a precipice."'^ This 

 fable, the correctness of which Prof. Oken did not 

 feel called upon to question, seems to be a survival, 

 with variations, of a story told byOlaus Magnus 

 27s years before. "The ermine, " he wrote, "often 

 seizes the elk by the throat, and bites them until 

 they bleed to death." 



Since the elk first entered the pages of literature 

 — on the jointless legs given him by Caesar — he 

 has been a creature of mystery, and travelers, 



Lehrbuch fiir Jdger, und die es Werden Wollen, vol. i., p. 163. 

 Allgemeine Naturgeschichte jiir Alle Stdnde, vol. vii., p. 13 13. 



