sented in our Plate) in the Jardin du Roi, previously to the gardens being opened to the public. On the morning on which our sketch was made, it was so delighted to get out that it began to caper, and galloped away, dragging its poor keeper after it in a ludicrous plight. It could rise in an instant from a recumbent posture; and the effect of seeing the head so much above you in so short a time was very extraordinary. Its food was hay, chopped beans with the husks taken off, and ground grain. These were put into an elevated trough for the convenience of the animal; so high that the man was obliged to have a ladder to ascend to it.

THE ELK

(Cervus Alces. LINN. L'Elan. BUFF.)

Is the largest and most formidable of all the deer kind, and is a native of both the old and the new continent. In Europe it is known by the name of the elk; but in America this species is designated the moose-deer. It inhabits the forests of Russia and Germany, likewise Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Tartary, as far as the north of China. It is common in Canada, and all the northern parts of America. In shape the elk is much less elegant than the rest of the deer species, having a very short and thick neck, a large head; horns, which are found only on the males, dilating almost immediately from the base into a palmated form, solid, and annually deciduous; the ears large, and somewhat slouching; a thick, broad, heavy, upper lip, hanging very much over the lower; very high shoulders; the hinder legs much shorter than the fore legs, and the hoofs deeply cloven; the teeth are the same in number and situation as in the other members of the deer species, namely, eight cutting teeth in the lower jaw, none in the upper. The colour of the animal is a dark grayish brown, much paler and inclining to white on the legs and beneath the tail.

The hair is of a strong, coarse, and elastic nature, and is much longer on the top of the shoulders and ridge of the neck than on the other parts, forming a kind of stiffish mane. The hair is also of considerable length beneath the neck; and in some specimens of the animal, a sort of excrescence, covered with long hair, is pendent from beneath the throat. The eyes are large, the hoofs broad, and the tail very short.

The European elk grows to the height of seven or eight feet, and the length from the nose to the insertion of the tail measures ten feet. The head is two feet long. The pace of this animal is a high shambling trot; but they proceed along with great swiftness. Formerly elks were employed in Sweden to draw sledges; but as they were frequently made accessary to the escape of such as had been guilty of murders or other great crimes, the use of them was prohibited under heavy penalties. In their ordinary walk they raise their fore feet very high, and will step over a gate a yard high with perfect ease, their hoofs clattering much during their motion, as is the case also with the rein-deer.

The elk resides principally in the midst of forests, for the convenience of browsing on the branches of trees, it being unable to graze with facility, on account of the shortness of its neck, and the disproportionate length of its fore legs. When passing through woods, they raise their heads to an horizontal position to prevent their horns from being entangled among the branches. They feed chiefly in the night, and ruminate like the ox. The rutting season is

in autumn. The female brings forth two at a birth, in the month of April. During the summer they keep in families. In deep snows they collect in numbers in the pine forests, for protection from the inclemency of the weather under the shelter of those evergreens.

Though naturally of an inoffensive and peaceable disposition, the elk displays a considerable share of courage when

suddenly attacked, or in the rutting season, when they become furious, and at that time swim from isle to isle in pursuit of the females. They will defend themselves with great vigour, not only with their horns, but also by striking violently with the fore feet, in which they are so dexterous as to kill a dog, or even a wolf, at a single blow. The flesh of the elk is very nourishing and light; but the nose is reckoned the greatest delicacy in all Canada. The tongues are excellent, and are frequently brought to this country from Russia. The skin makes excellent buff leather, being soft, strong, and light; the hair on the neck, withers, and hams, of a full-grown elk is, from its elasticity, of considerable use in making mattresses and saddles.

The chase of the moose-deer forms an important occupation among the natives of North America, and is performed by them in various methods. The first is the most simple, and is conducted in the following manner :-before the lakes and rivers are frozen, multitudes of the savages assemble in their canoes, and form with them a vast crescent, each horn touching the shore. Another party perform their share of the chase among the woods, surrounding an extensive tract, letting loose their dogs, and pressing towards the water with loud cries. Alarmed by the noise, the animals fly before the hunters, and plunge into the lake, where they are killed by the other savages in their boats, who are prepared to receive them with clubs and lances. Another method pursued at times by the hunters is more artful: they enclose a large space of ground with stakes, hedged with branches of trees, and forming two solid sides of a triangle. The bottom space opens into a second space, completely triangular. At the opening are hung numbers of snares, made of slips of raw hides. The Indians assemble, as before, in great troops, and, with all kinds of noises, drive into the first enclosure not only the mooses, but the other kinds of deer which abound in that country some, forcing their way into the farthest triangle, are caught in the snares by the neck or horns; and