tire to ponds or proceed to the rivers and immerse their bodies and 
heads, leaving merely enough of their noses above the water to allow 
them to breathe. 
Whilst ascending the Missouri river in the steamer Omega, we observed 
a fawn of this species one morning running along the shore under a high 
bank. It was covered with yellowish white spots, was as nimble and ac- 
tive as a kitten, and soon reached a place where it could ascend the bank, 
when it scampered off amid the tall grass. We had on board a servant of 
Mr. CiiARDON named Alexis Labombarde who was a most expert hunter. 
We soon saw another fawn, and Alexis went after it, the boat having stop- 
ped to wood. He climbed the bank and soon overtook the little animal, 
but having no rope or cord with him, was at a loss how to secure his cap- 
tive. He took off his suspenders and with these and his pocket-handkerchief 
managed to fasten the fawn around the neck, but on attempting to drag 
it toward the boat the suspenders gave way and the fawn dropped into the 
stream, and swam a few yards lower down, where it again landed ; one 
of our party witnessed from the steamboat the ineffectual efforts of Labom- 
BARDE and ran up to his assistance, but also without a rope or cord, and 
after much ado the animal again swam off and escaped. 
The food of the Elk consists generally of the grass found in the woods, 
the wild pea-vines, the branches of willows, lichens, and the buds of 
roses, &c. During the winter they scrape the snow from the ground 
with their fore-feet, and eat the tender roots and bark of shrubs and 
small trees. 
On our reaching Fort Pierre we were presented by Mr. Picot with 
a most splendidly prepared skin of a superb male Elk, and a pair of horns. 
The latter measured four feet six and a half inches in length ; breadth 
between the points twenty-seven and a half inches. The circumference 
of the skull or base ten inches, the knob twelve inches, between the 
knobs three inches. This animal, one of the largest ever seen by Mr. 
Picot, was killed in the month of November, 1832. 
Hearne says that the Elk is the most stupid of all the deer kind ; but 
our experience has led us widely to differ from that traveller, as we 
have always found these animals as wary and cunning as any of the 
deer tribe with which we are acquainted. We strongly suspect Hearne 
had reference to another species, the American reindeer. 
Wc chanced one day to land on a sand-bar covered with the broad 
deep tracks of apparently some dozen Elks : all the hunters we had in our 
boat prepared to join in the chase, and we among the rest, with our old 
trusty double-barrelled gun, sallied forth, and while passing through a 
large patch of willows, came suddenly upon a very large buck ; the noble 
