HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 121 



which a greater degree of credibility should be 

 given. 



From a variety of Elks' horns preserved in the 

 cabinets of the curious, some of which are of a 

 most enormous size, there is every reason to con- 

 clude, that the animal which bore them must have 

 been of a proportionable bulk and strength. 



Those who speak of the gigantic Moose, say, their 

 horns are six feet long, and measure, from tip to tip, 

 above ten feet: the beams of the horns are short; 

 from which they spread out into large and broad 

 palms, one side of which is plain, but on the outside 

 are several sharp snags or shoots. 



The European Elk grows to the height of seven 

 or eight feet ; and in length, from the end of the 

 muzzle to the insertion of the tail, measures ten feet : 

 the head is two feet long; the neck, on which is a 

 short upright mane, of a light brown colour, is much 

 shorter : its eye is small ; and, from the lower corner 

 of it, there is a deep slit, common to all the Deer 

 kind, as well as most of the Gazelles : the ears are 

 upwards of a foot in length, very broad, and some- 

 what slouching ; the nostrils are wide ; and the 

 upper lip, which is square, and has a deep furrow- 

 in the middle, hangs greatly over the lower, whence 

 it was imagined by the ancients, that this creature 

 could not graze without going backward : the 

 withers are very high, the hind legs much shorter 

 than the fore legs, and the hoofs deeply cloven : from 

 a small excrescence under the throat, hangs a long 

 tuft of coarse black hair: the tail is very short, 

 dusky above, and white beneath: the hair is long 

 and rough, like that of a Bear, and of a hoary 

 brown colour, not much differing from that of the 

 Ass. 



VOL. III. Q 



