of Selborne 71 



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 tliat 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 deHghts in eating the nymphma^ 

 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 tihia^ 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-gro^vn stag 

 be ! I have been told some arrive at ten feet and an half! 

 This poor creature had at first a female companion of 

 the same species, which died the spring before. In the 

 same garden was a young stag, or red deer, between whom 

 and this moose it was hoped that there might have been a 

 breed; but their inequality of height must have always 

 been a bar to any commerce of the amorous kind. I 

 should have been glad to have examined the teeth, 

 tongue, lips, hoofs, etc., minutely ; but the putrefaction 

 precluded all further curiosity. This animal, the keeper 

 told me, seemed to enjoy itself best in the extreme frost 

 of the former winter. In the house they showed me the 

 horn of a male moose, which had no front-antlers, but 

 only a broad palm with some snags on the edge. The 

 noble owner of the dead moose proposed to make a 

 skeleton of her bones. 



Please to let me hear if my female moose corresponds 

 with that you saw ; and whether you think still that 

 the American moose and European elk are the same 



creature. I am, 



With the greatest esteem, etc. 



