A Letter from Samuel Dale, M. L. to Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. President of the Royal Society, Containing the Descriptions of the Moose-Deer of New-England, and a Sort of Stag in Virginia; With Some Re-Marks Relating to Mr. Ray's Description of the Flying Squirrel of America

IV. A Letter from Samuel Dale, M. L. to Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. President of the Royal Society, containing the Descriptions of the Moose-Deer of New-England, and a sort of Stag in Virginia; with some Remarks relating to Mr. Ray's Description of the flying Squirrel of America. Worthy SIR, THE Present which I herewith make you, is the Head, or rather the Attire (as it is called in Heraldry) of the Moose-Deer, sent me some Years since from New-England by the Honourable Samuel Shute, Esq; then Governor of that Colony. This Animal hath been mention'd by several Authors, but their Accounts have generally been so very imperfect, that little Satisfaction hath thereby been given to the curious Inquirers after Natural History. The first Mention that I find of this Moose-Deer is by Mr. Josselyn, in a little Tract called New-England Rarities, where, Page the 19th, that Author writes, That it's a goodly Creature, some of which being 12 Foot high, their Horns exceeding fair, with broad Palms, some being two Fathoms from the Tip of one Horn to the other. Much to the same purpose is the Account he gives of this Animal in another Book of his called Two Voyages to New-England, p. 88. in which he faith, that The Moose, or Elke, is a Creature or rather a Monster of Superfluity, when full grown, being many times bigger than an English Ox. What Neal in his History of New England, Vol. II. p. 573. hath of this Animal, called by him the Moose, is copied from the aforesaid Josselyn. The best and fullest Ac- count of this Animal was sent by the Honourable Paul Dudley, Esq; Fellow of the Royal Society: This is published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No 368. p. 165. where he makes them to be of two Sorts, viz. The common light- grey Moose, called by the Indians, Wampoose; and the large or black Moose, which is the Beast whose Horns I herewith present *. As to the grey Moose, I take it to be no other than what Mr. John Clayton, in his Account of the Virginian Quadrupedes, pub- lished in the aforesaid Transactions, No 210. p. 122. calls the Elke; which Beast by the Parisians, in their Memoirs for a Natural History of Animals, Eng- lished by Mr. Pitfield, Page 167. is called by the Name of the Stag of Canada, of which I have seen a single Horn, sent by Mr. Mark Catesby from Vir- ginia, by the Name of an Elks-horn, and was in all respects like those of our red Deer or Stags, only larger, weighing about 12 Pounds Haverdupoiz, and from the Burr to the Tip, measured by a String, about six Foot high. Mr. Dudley writes, that his grey * The Dimensions of these Horns, see Fig. 2. are as follow. | Inches | Inches | |--------|--------| | A B | 56 | | C A | 34 | | C E | 31 | | C D | 34 | | D H | 30 | | F G | 9 1/2 | | F I L | 14 | | K L | 7 | D d d Moose Moose is most like to the ordinary Deer; that they spring like them, and herd together sometimes to 30 in a Company: But whether he means by that Term the Red, the Virginian, or the Fallow-Deer, is uncertain, he having said nothing of their Horns, which was needful to distinguish them. The black Moose is (by all that have hitherto writ of it) accounted a very large Creature. Mr. Josselyn (as I before mentioned) makes it many times bigger than an Ox; and Mr. Dudley writes, that the Hunters have found a Buck or Stag-Moose 14 Spans in Height from the Withers, which at nine Inches to the Span, is ten Feet and a half; and that a Doe or Hind of the fourth Year, killed by a Gentleman near Boston, wanted but one Inch of seven Feet in Height. The Stag, Buck, or Male of this kind hath a palmed Horn, not like that of our common or Fallow-Deer, but the Palm is much longer, and more like to that of the German Elke, from which it differs, in that the Moose hath a branched Brow-Antler between the Burr and the Palm, which the German Elke hath not. Nor doth the Horn of this New-England black Moose agree in Figure with either of those mentioned in the Philosophical Transactions, No 227. p. 489, and No 394. p. 123. to be found Fossil in Ireland, the last of which, Mr. Kelly, writes, that for want of another Name they called them Elks-Horns. I suspect that those Horns which the late Reverend and Learned Mr. Ray mentions in his Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedium to have been with one Mr. Holney, an Apothecary of Lewis in Sussex, as likewise in divers Museums, were not the Horns of this black or American Moose, but of the German Elke, because because that inquisitive Gentleman takes no Notice of any Brow-Antlers that they had; which, I think, was too notorious to have escaped his Observation, had had there been any such. Concerning the Number of young-ones, or Calves, which the Moose brings forth at a time, Authors vary; for Mr. Dudley faith, that they bring forth but two; but Josselyn in his Two Voyages, p. 89. and from him Neal, that they are three, and that they do not go so long pregnant as our Hinds by two Months. What these two last-mentioned Authors write concerning their casting their Calves a Mile distant from each other, doth not seem to me probable. Nor do I find that Neal, in his Description of this Beast, makes any mention of their having a long Tail, tho' so charged to do by Mr. Dudley, who likewise omits the Brow-Antlers in his Description of their Horns. There is another Beast of the Deer-kind, which, tho' very common in Virginia, and without Doubt in other of the Northern Provinces of America, yet I think it is not described by any Author; (but it is expected that it will not escape being taken Notice of by Mr. Catesby in his Natural History of Florida, &c.) Mr. Beverly, in his Present State of Virginia, mentions both Elke and Deer in that Country, but doth not describe either: But by what I have received from Mr. Catesby, the first should be the Canada-Stag, and the other the Deer I have here mentioned. Mr. Clayton likewise mentions the Elke, which he faith are beyond the inhabited Parts, and are the same with Mr. Beverly's; as also the Deer, of which he faith there are Abundance, yet doth not describe them, but calls them Red-Deer, tho' they are not the same as we here call by that Name, but of those which follow. Mr. Neal likewise mentions Deer in New-England, but gives only the Name, which being general, nothing can be inferred from it. That which I take for the undescribed Deer, is a Beast of the Stag-kind, having round Horns like them, not spreading out as in the Stag or Red-Deer, but meeting nearer together at their Tips, and bending forward over the Face of the Animal; the Brow-Antlers likewise are not crooked and standing forward, but strait and upright (see Fig. 3.). The Skin of this Deer is of an arenaceous or sandy Colour, with some black Hairs intermix'd, and spotted all over, while young, with white Spots, like some sorts of our Fallow-Deer, being also about the Bigness of them when fully grown. The Dama Virginiana Raii Synop. Animal. Quad. p. 86. which was formerly in St. James's-Park, seems to be different from this, if Mr. Willoughby was not led into a Mistake in taking it to be of the Palmate-kind, by only seeing it when the Horns were shed. Perhaps this last of Mr. Ray may be the Maurouse of Josselyn's Voyages, p. 91. which, he faith, is like the Moose; but his Horns are but small, and the Beast about the Size of a Stag; but his Description is too short to be satisfactory. There are other sorts of Deer mention'd by Mr. Josselyn in his last-quoted Book, p. 87. as Inhabitants of that Country, as the Buck, Stag, and Rain-Deer; but whether they are the same with those called by the same Names in Europe, I cannot determine, the Descriptions of them being omitted. He mentions likewise, for another sort of American-Deer, Deer, an Animal called a Maccarib, Caribo or Pohano; but by the Account he gives, it seems to be a Fiction, no such Animal being, I believe, in Rerum natura. I find that Mr. Ray in his Synop. Quad. p. 215. rather refers the Sciurus Americanus volans, to the Mouse than to the Squirrel-kind; because their Tails are broad and plain, and not turn'd over their Backs when they sit; which Mistake may perhaps arise from only seeing the Skin of one dead, when the Hair of the Tail had been eaten off by Mites; for in one that I did see alive, which was brought over from Virginia by Madam Cock, Sister to Mr. Catesby, the Tail was hairy, as in others of the Squirrel-kind; tho' rather more thin, and did turn over the Back as other Squirrels do. N.B. The same Species of flying Squirrels hath been found in Poland; a Description of which, with an accurate Figure, is given by the Learned Mr. Klein, F.R.S. in N° 427. of these Transactions. As to the large Horns found Fossil in Ireland, I have taken particular Notice, (in several I have seen) beside the main Horns being palmated, that the Brow-Antlers are likewise palmated; which is a Circumstance peculiar to the Rein-Deer Species, being of great Service to them in removing the Snow, in order to get at the Grass or Mois underneath, which is their chief Subsistence in Lapland. C.M. V. An