TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
385 
on ibe belly. The head is large, the eyes peculiarly promi¬ 
nent and bright, and the horns, which are thrown back on 
the shoulders when the animal is running, will weigh from 
twenty to forty pounds. 
The moose must not: be confounded with another species 
which, though it is totally distinct, is yet often called by the 
hunters 4 grey moose . 5 This is the Elk proper ; also known 
as the stag, red deer, wapiti, &c., the Cervus Canadensis of 
naturalists. The elk is an inhabitant of the plains, particu¬ 
larly in the valleys of the San Joaquim and other rivers, 
where immense herds, sometimes of many thousands, often 
congregate. The importance of the elk to the Indians as an 
article of food, leads them to adopt many ingenious devices 
for his destruction. One of these is interesting. The Indian 
has prepared an elk skin, with the head and horns in their 
natural condition. After surveying a herd of his intended 
victims, who are quietly feeding on the plain, he gets stealthily 
to their windward side, and after crawling, sometimes on his 
hands and knees, to escape their keen observation, as near as 
he thinks possible, and if practicable, screening himself 
behind a skirt of bushes, he puts on the prepared skin, and 
emerges from his hiding-place, wdth his bow and arrows 
under his arm. As soon as he is sufficiently near for his pur¬ 
pose, and sometimes the unsuspicious animals will allow T him 
to approach almost into the centre of the herd, he fits his 
arrows to his bow, and fires away right and left, as fast as 
the shafts can be discharged, and before the victims have 
recovered from their astonishment the plain is strewed with 
the wounded and dying. 
Another method of taking this animal is by means ot 
snares, made of a tough kind of grass, which are set on their 
places of resort. The elk is considerably less in size than his 
gigantic relative the moose, and his figure and general appear¬ 
ance are quite different, being- much lighter and more slender, 
and resembling more nearly the common deer. The legs, like 
those of the whole family, are long and slender, the tail short, 
