68 WHITE 



LETTER XXVIII 



SELBORNE, March, 1770. 



ON Michaelmas day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the 

 female moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at Good- 

 wood ; but was greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, 

 to find that it died, after having appeared in a languishing way 

 for some time on the morning before. However, understand- 

 ing that it was not stripped, I proceeded to examine this rare 

 quadruped ; I found it in an old greenhouse, 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 its legs ; on which it 

 was tilted up much in the manner of the birds of the grall<z 

 order. I measured it, as they do a horse, and found that, 

 from the ground to the withers 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, its 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 great- 

 est difficulty, between its 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, 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 ; tow- 

 ards which way of livelihood the length of legs and great lip 

 must contribute much. I have read somewhere that it delights 

 in eating the nymph(za> 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. Its scut seemed to be about an inch long ; the color 



