table im- peaches the firft member of the aflertion, that of the animals common to both coun- tries, the American are fmalleft, * et cela * XXV. 184. f Quad. IX. 132.
t XJX. 2. jl Quad. IX. 41.
fans aucune exception/ It fhows it not juft, in all the latitude in which its author has advanced it, and probably not to fuch a degree as to found a diftinftion between the two countries.
Proceeding to the fecond table, which arranges the animals found in one of the two countries only, Monf. de Buffbn ob- ferves, that the tapir, the elephant of America, is but of the fize of a fmall cow. To preferve our comparifon, I will add, that the wild boar, the elephant of Eu- rope, is little more than half that fize. I have made an elk with round or cylindrical horns an animal of America, and peculiar to it; becaufe I have feen many of them myfelf, and more of their horns; and be- caufe I can fay, from the beft information, that, in Virginia, this kind of elk has abounded much, and flill exifls in fmaller numbers; and I could never learn that the palmated kind had been feen here at all.
I fuppofe this confined to the more northern latitudes^. I have made our * The defcriptions of Theodat, Denys and La Honton, cited by Monf.
de BufFon, under the article Elan, authorize the fiippofxtion, that the flat- hare or rabbit peculiar, believing it to be difFerent from both the European animals of thofe denominations, and calling it horned elk. is found in the northren parts of America, It has not however extended to our latitudes. On the other hand, I could never learn that the round-horned elk has been feen further north than the Hudfon's river. This agrees with the former elk in its general charafter, being, like that, when compared with a deer, very much larger, its ears longer, broader, and thicker in proportion, irs hair much longer, neck and tail fliorter, having a dewlap before the breaft (caruncula gutturalis Linnaei) a white fpot