80 NATURAL HISTORY 



spot, to find that it died, after having appeared in a languish- 

 ing way for some time, on the morning before. However, 

 understanding that it was not stripped, I proceeded to examine 

 this rare quadruped: I found it in an old green-house, slung 

 under the belly and chin by ropes, and in a standing posture ; 

 but, though it had been dead for so short a time, it was in so 

 putrid a state that the stench was hardly supportable. The 

 grand distinction between this deer, and any other species that 

 I have ever met with, consisted in the strange length of it's 

 legs; on which it was tilted up much in the manner of birds 

 of the grallce order. I measured it, as they do an horse, and 

 found that, from the ground to the wither, it was just five feet 

 four inches ; which height answers exactly to sixteen hands, 

 a growth that few horses arrive at : but then, with this 

 length of legs, it's neck was remarkably short, no more than 

 twelve inches; so that, by straddling with one foot forward and 

 the other backward, it grazed on the plain ground, with the 

 greatest difficulty, between it's legs : the ears 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, tra- 

 vellers 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 leg and great 

 lip must contribute much. I have read somewhere that it de- 

 lights in eating the nymphcea, or water-lily. From the fore- 

 feet to the belly behind the shoulder it measured three feet 

 and eight inches : the length of the legs before and behind 

 consisted a great deal in the tibia, which was strangely long ; 

 but, in my haste to get out of the stench, I forgot to measure 

 that joint exactly. It's 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 it's growth. What 

 a vast tall beast must a full-grown stag be ! I have been told 

 some arrive at ten feet and an half ! This poor creature had at 



