17 76. January. LXVI. p. 378, has delineated the horns extremely well, but has very improperly afcribed them to the coudou (Belgis ■koedoe) which is quite a different animal, and of which we fhall fay more hereafter. The figure annexed at Plate I. Vol. II. I had an opportunity, in my journey homewards, of drawing from a live elk, which had been caught while it was y>et a fawn; but though it was not quite grown up, and though it was permitted to go loofe day and night without the leaft reftraint or confinement, yet it never went away, but kept very near to mankind, and about the farm : whence it appears, how eafy it would be to domefticate this fpecies of gazel, which, in its tame ftate, might be more ferviceable than either horfes or oxen, and, in a great meafure, perform the offices for which both thefe animals are ufed; efpecially as this beaft is faid to keep up its fleffi without taking much food, for the rnoft part contenting itfelf with ilirubs and buffies, which the land is more inclined to produce than grafs. It appeared to me, that the hair in the fore-top and on the forehead was longer in this than in the three old ones which I faw ffiot; on the other hand, this wanted the fmall elevation, or knoh, which the others, and particularly one of them, had between and behind their horns. This beaft is of an aih-eolour, inclining a little towards blue, excepting the following parts, which are quite black, viz. the tuft at the end o f the tail, the ikin between the fetlocks and the hoofs, and the thin ereft mane, which extends from the nape of the animal’s neck along the fpine o f its back. The The horns o f this creature, when it is full grown, are two feet long, and of a dark brown colour, being twifted, or forming a very confpicuous wreath half way up from the bafe, in which they have three fides and three ridges or ribs, fepa- rated by the fides from e*ach other; the horns afterwards become round and ftraight, excepting that the tips of them are gradually turned a little fowards and inwards. The hind- moft ridge near the bafe becomes, in the middle of the writhen part of the horn, the middlemoft ridge, and the moft raifed; but at its termination again becoming the hind- moft, gradually decreafes, and vaniihes at the back of the upper half of the horn. The interior and anterior edge is the moft obtufe o f any, and in fome is quite rounded o ff; the exterior and anterior likewife terminates at top, outwards and forwards, fomewhat higher than the others. At the bottom of all, near the bafes of the horn, there appears feveral irregular fcabrous and oblique rings, which are tolerably well expreffed in the figure of the tobacco horn given in Plate I. Vol. I. fig. 3 ; but after this', the fibres, of the horn take a fpiral form, running over and parallel with the above-defcribed twifted angles and fides of the horn, though in feveral places a half ring or fcabrous inequality going acrofs them is difcoverable. The forehead of this animal is flat, and tolerably broad at top, in proportion to what it fs lower down about the eyes, where it becomes very narrow. It has a foretop Handing eredl, the length of its whole forehead. Its nofe is iharp and pointed. Its breaft is covered with a paleare, or loofe ikin, with long hair. - This animal has a-great deal of fat, efpecially about the heart: from an old male which we gave chafe to and ihot, 2 Wre 1776. January.
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