MOOSE DEER. 87 



moose belonging to the duke of Richmond, at Goodwood; 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, 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 sup- 

 portable. The grand distinction be- 

 tween this deer, and any other species 

 that I have ever met with, consisted Moose Deer, 



in the strange length of its legs ; on which it was tilted up much 

 in the manner of the birds of the gralla order. I measured it, 

 as they do a 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, 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 greatest 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 ; 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 nymph&a, 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 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 ! 



