120 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



As it looks somewhat like dissimulation, I shall not 

 conceal from you any longer that I sometimes receive from 

 Gibraltar communications in the natural way. And the 

 reason I have not imparted them to you from time to time 

 was, because my Brother, from the time he was put on 

 looking about him, conceived a design of drawing-up 

 somewhat of a natural history of those Southern parts of 

 Europe. The apes on the rock of Gibraltar have no tails.] 



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 pro- 

 ceeded 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 it's 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 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 

 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 



