ELK. 
gular gait : their pace is a high, shambling, trot; 
but they go with vast swiftness. In passing 
through thick woods, they carry their heads 
horizontally, to prevent their horns being en- 
tangled in the branches. In their common 
walk^ they raise their fore-feet very high ; 
that which I saw, stepped aver a rail nearly a 
yard high with great ease. They are very in- 
oiFensive animals ; except when wounded, or 
in the rutting-season, when they become very 
furious : and, at that time,, they will swim from 
isle to isle, in pursuit of the Females. They 
strike Vv'ith both, horns and hoofs; and are 
hunted, in Canada, during winter, when they 
sink so deep in the snow as to become an easy 
prey. When first unharboured, they squat 
with their hind-parts, make water, and then go 
off in a most rapid trot. During their former 
attitude, the hunter usually directs his shot." 
It is, probably j from this habit of squatting, 
that the Elk has been said to be naturally sub- 
ject to the epilepsy : whence arose the ridicu- 
lous notion, that the animal, by scratching it's 
ear with it's hoof till the blood flowed;, 
effected it's own cure ; and the still more absurd 
one^ 
