
          Jefferson Barracks Mo [Missouri]
 July 21st 1827

 Sir
 Excuse the liberty I take to inform you
 for this information of the Society - "the West
 Point Lyceum of Nat [Natural] History" - that I have
 brought with me from the Council Bluffs
 the skull bone of an elk with the horns
 in their full grown state upon it.

 The horn's weigh 36 pounds and measure
 4 feet & an half from the skull to the extreme
 points, each having five branches of about
 two feet in length.

 These horns were found
 by the U.S. [United States] Troops under Genl [General] Atkinson
 at the point formed by the junction of 
 the Yellowstone river with the Missouri.
 They are decidedly the best I have seen
 in the Country though I am told many
 have been found much longer
        