nations, and calling it therefore by its Algonquin name, whabus, to keep it diſtinct from theſe. Kalm is of the ſame opinion.[1] I have enumerated the ſquirrels according to our own knowledqe, derived from daily ſight of them, becauſe I am not able to reconcile with that the European appellations and deſcriptions. I have heard of other ſpecies, but they have never come within own my notice. Theſe, I think, are the only inſtances in which I have departed from the authority of Mons. de Buffon in the conſtruction of this table, I take him for my ground work, becauſe I think him the beſt informed of any naturaliſt who has ever written. The reſult is, that there are 18 quadrupeds
- ↑ Kalm II. 340. I. 82.
hands, toward clearing up the confuſion introduced by the looſe application of theſe names among the animals they are meant to deſignate. He reduces the whole to the renne and flat-horned elk. From all the information I have been able to collect, I ſtrongly ſuſpect they will be found to cover three, if not four diſtinct ſpecies of animals. I have ſeen ſkins of a mooſe, and of the caribou: they differ more from each other, and from that of the round horned elk, than I ever ſaw two ſkins differ which belonged to different individuals of any wild ſpecies. Theſe differences are in the colour, length, and coarſeneſs, of the hair, and in the ſize, texture, and marks of the ſkin. Perhaps it will he found that there is, 1. the mooſe, black and grey, the former being ſaid to be the male, and the latter the female. 2. The caribou, or renne. 3. The flat-horned elk, or orignal. 4. The round-horned elk. Should this laſt, though poſſeſſing ſo nearly the characters of the elk, be found to be the ſame with Cerf d'Ardennes or Brandhirtz of Germany, ſtill there will remain the three ſpecies firſt enumerated.
