to him not to send me another.  I will leave it for my successor to fill up, whenever I shall make my bow here.  The purchase for Mrs. Adams shall be made, and sent by Mr. Cutting.  I shall always be happy to receive her commands.  Petit shall be made happy by her praises of his last purchase for her.  I must refer you to Mr. Adams for the news.  Those respecting the Dutch you know as well as I. Nor should they be written but with the pen of Jeremiah.  Adieu, mon ami!  Yours affectionately,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER C.—­TO MONSIEUR LE COMTE DE BUFFON, October 3, 1787

TO MONSIEUR LE COMTE DE BUFFON.

Paris, October 3, 1787.

Sir,

I had the honor of informing you, some time ago, that I had written to some of my friends in America, desiring they would send me such of the spoils of the moose, caribou, elk, and deer, as might throw light on that class of animals; but more particularly, to send me the complete skeleton, skin, and horns of the moose, in such condition as that the skin might be sewed up and stuffed, on its arrival here.  I am happy to be able to present to you at this moment, the bones and skin of a moose, the horns of another individual of the same species, the horns of the caribou, the elk, the deer, the spiked-horned buck, and the roebuck of America.  They all come from New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and were received by me yesterday.  I give you their popular names, as it rests with yourself to decide their real names.  The skin of the moose was dressed with the hair on, but a great deal of it has come off, and the rest is ready to drop off.  The horns of the elk are remarkably small.  I have certainly seen some of them, which would have weighed five or six times as much.  This is the animal which we call elk in the southern parts of America, and of which I have given some description in the Notes on Virginia, of which I had the honor of presenting you a copy.  I really doubt, whether the flat-horned elk exists in America:  and I think this may be properly classed with the elk, the principal difference being in the horns.  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 have never seen the brand-hirtz or cerf d’Ardennes, nor the European elk.  Could I get a sight of them, I think I should be able to say which of them the American elk resembles most, as I am tolerably well acquainted with that animal.  I must observe, also, that the horns of the deer, which accompany these spoils, are not of the fifth or sixth part of the weight of some that I have seen.  This individual has been of three years of age, according to our method of judging.  I have taken measures, particularly, to be furnished with large horns of our elk and our deer, and therefore beg of you not to