THE STORY OF THE ELK. 85 
cruel rider tearing its tender flesh with both fangs and claws. The contest 
is soon over, for the deer is a defenseless creature. 
The European elk and the American moose, probably members of the 
same species, differ from the deer in the setting-on of the antlers of the male. 
I shot a moose in Canada the antlers of which weighed over sixty pounds, 
with a span of five and a half feet. The buck was an old one, and judging 
from the antlers they were of ten years’ growth. 
COW ELK AND CALVES. 
The height of the elk has been much exaggerated, some writers asserting 
that the male may stand as much as eight feet at the withers. I believe, how¬ 
ever, that it is safe to> say that it may attain a height of six feet, or occasionally 
rather more, and I may probably put the extreme limits as not exceeding 
six and a half feet. The weight of an average adult male elk is given as 700 
lbs., but large specimens will reach 900 to 1,000, and, it is said, even as much 
as 1,200 lbs. 
Adult male elk, and occasionally the females, have a curious pendulous 
