5669. NATURAL HISTORY, American animals.—
I really doubt whether the
flat-horned elk exists in America. * * *
I have seen the daim, the cerf, the chevreuil
of Europe. But the animal we call elk, and
which may be distinguished as the round-horned
elk, is very different from them. * * *
I suspect that you will find that the moose, the
round-horned elk, and the American deer are
species not existing in Europe. The moose
is perhaps of a new class.—
To Comte de Buffon. Washington ed. ii, 286.
Ford ed., iv, 458.
(P.
1787)
