OF SELBORNE. 103 
were vast and lopping, and as long as the neck; 
the head was about twenty inches long, and ass-like ; 
and had such a redundancy of upper lip as I never 
saw before, with huge nostrils. ‘This lip, travellers 
say, is esteemed a dainty dish in North America. 
It is very reasonable to suppose that this creature 
supports itself chiefly by browsing of trees and by 
wading after water-plants, towards which way of 
livelihood the length of legs and great lip must 
contribute much. I have read somewhere that it 
delights in eating the nymphe, or water-lily. From 
the fore feet to the belly behind the shoulder it meas- 
ured three feet and eight inches; the length of 
the legs before and behind consisted a great deal in 
the t2dia, which was strangely long; but I forgot 
to measure that joint exactly. Its scut seemed to 
be about an inch long; the colour was a grizzly 
black ; the mane about four inches long; the fore 
hoofs were upright and shapely, the hind flat and 
splayed. The spring before it was only two years 
old, so that, most probably, it was not then come 
to its growth. What a vast tall beast must a full 
grown stag be! I have been told some arrive at 
ten feet and ahalf! This poor creature had at first 
a female companion of the same species, which 
died the spring before. I should have been glad 
to have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c., 
minutely. This animal, the keeper told me, seem- 
ed to enjoy itself best in the extreme frost of the 
former winter. In the house they showed me the 
horn of a male moose, which had no front antlers, 
but only a broad palm, with some snags on the 
edge. The noble owner of the dead moose pro- 
posed to make a skeleton of her bones. 
