5l6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1721. 



of his back is 10 or 12 inches long, of which the Indians make good belts. 

 He has a very short tail. 



A stag-moose has been taken, which measured IO-l feet high from the 

 withers ; a quarter of his venison weighed upwards of 200 lbs. A doe or 

 hind of the 4th year was killed near Boston, which from the nose to the tail 

 measured between 10 and 1 1 feet, and wanted only an inch of 7 feet in 

 height. 



The horns of the moose, when full grown, are between 4 and 5 feet from 

 the head to the tip ; they have 7 shoots or branches to each horn, and they 

 generally spread about 6 feet. When the horns come out of the head, they 

 are round, like the horns of an ox ; about a foot from the head, they begin to 

 grow a palm broad, and further up still wider, of which the Indians make good 

 ladles, that will hold a pint. When a moose goes through a thicket, or under 

 the boughs of trees, he lays his horns back on his neck, not only that he may 

 make his way the easier, but to cover his body from the bruise or scratch of the 

 wood. The horns are shed every year ; the doe-moose has none. 



A moose does not spring, or rise in going, as an ordinary deer, but moves 

 along sidewise, throwing out the feet, much like a horse in a racking pace. 

 One of these large black moose, in his common walk, has been seen to step 

 over a gate, or fence, 5 feet high. After a moose is unharboured, he will run 

 a course of 20 or 30 miles, before he turns about, or comes to a bay ; when 

 chased, they generally take to the water ; the common deer, for a short space, 

 are swifter than a moose, but a moose soon outwinds a deer. 



The flesh of the moose is excellent food, and though not so delicate as the 

 common venison, yet it is more substantial, and will bear salting : the nose is 

 considered as a great delicacy ; I have eat several of them, and found them 

 resemble marrow. The Indians say they can travel three times as far after a 

 meal of moose, as after any other flesh of the forest. 



The black moose are not very gregarious, being rarely found above 4 or 5 

 together ; the young ones keep with the dam a full year. A moose calves every 

 year, and generally brings two. She brings forth her young ones standing, and 

 the young fall from the dam on their feet. The time of their bringing forth is 

 generally in the month of April. 



The moose, being very tall, and having short necks, do not graze on tiie 

 ground, as the common deer; and if at any time they eat grass, it is the top of 

 that which grows very high, or on steep rising ground. In the summer they 

 feed on plants, herbs, and young shrubs, that grow on the land ; but mostly, 

 and with greatest delight, on water-plants, especially a sort of wild colts-foot 

 and lily, that abound in the ponds, and by the sides of the rivers, and for 



