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PEER TRIBE. 
DEER TRIBE. 
This is an active tribe., inhabiting principally 
wild and woody regions. In their contentions,, 
both among each other and with the rest of the 
brute creation, these animals not only use their 
horns, but also strike very furiously with their 
fore feet. Some of the species are employed by 
mankind as beasts of draught. The flesh of the 
whole tribe is wholesome, and that of some of the 
kinds, under the name of venison, is accounted par- 
ticularly delicious. 
The horns are solid and branched. They are re- 
newed every year ; and while young are covered 
with a skin, which is extremely vascular, and 
clothed with a fine velvet fur, that dries, shrivels, 
and falls off when the horns have attained their 
full size. There are eight front teeth in the lower 
jaw. In general this tribe is destitute of canine 
teeth, but sometimes a single one is found on each 
side in the upper jaw. 
' ELK. 
The elk, or moose deer, is found in Europe, 
America, and Asia, as far as Japan ; but it is 
met with in greatest quantity in the northern parts 
of both continents, where it frequents the forests. 
It is often found larger than the horse, both in 
height and bulk ; but the length of its legs, the 
bulk of the body, the shortness of the neck, and 
uncommon length of the head and ears, without 
any appearance of a tail, render its form very auk- 
ward. The hair of the male (which far exceeds the 
female in. size), is black at the points, cinereous in 
