Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/84

74  ''cited by Mons. de Buffon, under the article of Elan,'' authorize the ſuppoſition, that the flat-horned elk is found ''in the northern parts of America. It has not however'' ''extended to our latitudes. On the other handy I could'' never learn that the round-horned elk has been ſeen further ''north than the Hudſon's River. This agrees with the'' former elk in its general character, being, like that, when compared with a deer, very much larger, its ears longer, broader, and thicker in proportion, its hair much longer, neck and tail ſhorter, having a dewlap before the breaſt (caruncula gutturalis Linnæi) a white ſpot often, if not always, of a foot diameter, on the hinder part of the buttocks round the tail; its gait a trot, and attended with a rattling of the hoofs: but diſtinguiſhed from that deciſively by its horns, which are not palmated, but round and ''pointed. This is the animal deſcribed by Cateſby as the'' Cervus major Americanus, the ſtag of America, le Cerf ''de l'Amerique. But it differs from the Cervus as totally,'' ''as does the palmated elk from dama. And in fact it'' ſeems to ſtand in the ſame relation to the elk, as the red deer ''does to the fallow. It has abounded in Virginia, has'' been ſeen, within my knowledge, on the eaſtern ſide of the Blue ridge ſince the year 1765, is now common beyond thoſe mountains, has been often brought to us and tamed, ''and its horns are in the hands of many. I ſhould deſignate'' it as the ‘Alces Americanus cornibus teretibus.’ It were to be wiſhed, that naturaliſts, who are acquainted with the renne and elk of Europe, and who may hereafter viſit the northern parts of America, would examine well the animals called there by the names of the grey and ''black mooſe, caribou, orignal and elk. Mons. de Buffon'' has done what could be done from the materials in his hare or rabbit peculiar, believing it to be different from both the European animals of thoſe