NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 81 



LETTER XXVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, March, 1770. 



ON Michaelmas Day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the female 

 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 greenhouse, slung under the belly and chin by ropes, and in 

 a standing posture ; but though it had been dead for so short a 





HEAD OF MOOSE DEER. 



time, it was in so putrid a state that the stench was hardly support- 

 able. 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 gralla order. I measured it, as they do an 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 



