distance to which they occasionally travel, and the privations they undergo on
their horse-stealing excursions, are almost incredible. An Indian who owns a
horse scarcely ever ventures to sleep after nightfall, but sits at his tent door with
the halter in one hand and his gun in the other, the horse’s fore-legs being at the
same time tied together with thongs of leather. Notwithstanding all this care,
however, it often happens that the hunter, suffering himself to be overpowered by
sleep for only a few minutes, awakes from the noise made by the thief gallopping
off with the animal.
The Spokans, who inhabit the country lying between the forks of the Columbia,
as well as some other tribes of Indians, are fond of horse-flesh as an article of
food ; and the residents at some of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts on that
river, are under the necessity of making it their principal article of diet.
[73.] 1. Cervus a l o e s . (Linn.) Moose Deer.
G e n u s , C e rv u s . L i n n .
E l i a n , sta g g , o r a p ta p to u . D e M o n t ’s Nova Francia, p . 25 0 . A n . 1604.
E s la n o u o r ig n a t. S a g a r d - T h e o d a t , Canada, p . 7 4 9 . A n . 1636.
O r ig n a l . . L a H o n t a n , V o y p . 7 2 . A n . 1703.
M o o se d e e r , . Dudley, Phil. Trans. N o . 368. p. 165. A n ,. 1721,.
'O rig n a c . Hist, de V Amérique. ■ A n . 1 7 2 3 .'
O r ig n a l. C h a r l e v o ix , N ouv. Frdnce, v o l. v . p . 1 85. A n . 1744. D e n y s , Descr. de VAmer., vol* i, p . 27« p . 1 63 ;
v o l. ii.. p p . 3 2 1 , 4 2 5 . D u P r a t z , Louis, vo l. i . p . 301.
M o o s e d e e r. P e n n a n t , Arctic Zool\ vo l. i. p . 1 7 . C um fig . A n . 17 8 4 .
M o o se . Um freville, Huds. Bay. A n . 1790. Herio t’s Trav. A n . 1807. W i t h a go o d figure.
M o o se d e e r. W a r d e n , United States, vo l. i. p . 3 2 8 . G o d m a n , Nat. Hist., vo l. iL p . 274.
C e rv u s alces. H a r l a n , Fauna, p . 2 2 9 . G r i f f i t h , An. King., vo l. iv . p . 7 2 . A g o o d f ig u re o f t h e h e a d .
cc O r ig n a c . B a s q u e S e t t l e r s i n Ca n a d a .” (D e M o n ts .)
O r ig n a l. F r e n c h Ca n a d ia n s o f t h e p r e s e n t d a y ,
M o o so a. C r e e I n d ia n s . D e n y a i. C h e p e w y a n s ,
“ S o n d a r e in ta . Hu Ro n s .” (T h e o d a t.)
The Moose Deer is said to derive its present English name from its Algonquin
and Cree appellation of mongsoa or moosoa. It early attracted the attention of
travellers in America, and various descriptions of it appear in their works, some
of which are quoted above. Live specimens have occasionally been brought to
England, and one was sent!to his late Majesty, from Churchill, in Hudson’s Bay-
Naturalists have generally considered the moose deer to be the same species with
the elk of the northern, parts of the old world*. The Anglo-Americans, however,
having given the trivial name of elk to the Canada stag or red deer, some confusion
has occasionally crept into the accounts published by travellers, of the size, manners,
and geographical distribution of the moose; and it has also sometimes been
confounded with the rein deer, from its possessing, in common with that animal,
palmated horns. The fact, that few of the American quadrupeds have been found
precisely similar to their European representatives, ought to excite doubts of the
identity of the moose and Scandinavian elk, until it is established by satisfactory
comparisons. This does not appear, however, to have been hitherto done, and
Some: differences between them are hinted at by La Hontan. Major Smith also
mentions, that the lower, parts of the antlers of the American animal more often
separate into branches than those of the European one.
Du Pratz informs us that, in his time, moose deer were found as far south as the
Ohio; and Denys says, that they were once plentiful on the island of Cape Breton,
though at the time that he wrote they had been extirpated. At present, according
to Dr. Godman, they are not known in the state of Maine; but they exist in considerable
numbers in the neighbourhood of the bay of Fundy. They frequent the
woody tracts in the fur countries to their most northern limit. Several were seen on
Captain Franklin’s last expedition, at the mouth of the Mackenzie, feeding on the
willows, which, owing to the rich alluvial deposits on that great river, extend to the
shores of the Arctic sea, in lat. 69°. Further to the eastward, towards the Copper-
mine river, they are not found in a higher latitude than 65°, on account of the scarcity
on the Barren Grounds of the aspen and willow, which constitute their food. I have
not been able to ascertain whether they occupy the whole width of the continent or
not. Mackenzie saw them high up on the eastern declivity of the Rocky Mountains,
near the sources of the Elk river; but I suspect that they are rarely, if ever,
found to the westward of the mountains. Authors mention that the moose generally
form small herds in Canada. La Hontan, who travelled in that country in
1683, says, that whilst he accompanied the Indians they hunted the elk with dogs,
when there was a crust on the snow; and that, after a chase of a few leagues, they
generally found ten, fifteen, or twenty of them in a body: in three months his party
killed fifty-six, and might have taken as many more. It is probable, however, that
♦ A c c o rd in g to B u ffo n , th e e lk w a s u n k n o w n to th e G r e e k s ; a n d th e w o rd alee firs t o c cu rs i n th e w r itin g ? o f J u l iu s
C « s a r , a n d w a s p ro b a b ly a d o p te d b y h im f rom th e C e lt* . I t s C e ltic n am e is e l c h ; a n d Sw ed ish , selg.
2 H