I have seen a bolt of truth arc across the heavens to land in a foreign field. Perhaps now my journeying has crossed the plains of confusion and mountains of perplexity and chanced upon a smouldering meadow that was the target of said projectile, albeit long since burnt out.

It seems The Guardian was wrong about one thing; a moose in Europe is not a moose but an elk. However, both share the binomial Alces alces. My spirit renewed by this finding it turns out the elk became extinct from Scotland in c.1300 and was last captured in the Fenian legend Bas Dhairmid:

Glen Shee, that glen by my side, Where oft is heard the voice of deer and elk.

The galling thing is the americanisation of the term, which is not only incorrect but has given me unnecessary vexation for almost half a day. I shall be writing to The Guardian to tell them so.