NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 65 



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 horses arrive at : but then, with this 

 length of legs, its 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 of legs and great lip must contribute much. 

 I have read somewhere that it delights in eating the nymphcea, 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 tibia, 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 grown 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, &c. minutely ; but the putre- 

 faction precluded all farther 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, &c. 



* The American moose, cervus alces, Linnaeus ; and, I believe, the alces americanus 

 of modern zoologists, "is," writes Major Hamilton Smith, "an inhabitant of 

 northern latitudes, in Europe between the 53 and 65, in Asia from 35 to 15, and 

 in America between the 44 and 53, round the great lakes, and over the whole of 

 Canada and New Brunswick. But this is quite a different animal from that 

 found in a fossil state and known as the elk. It is the cervus gigo.nteus of Cuvier, 

 and fine specimens of the remains have been found in the bogs of Ireland and the 

 Isle of Man. The American elk, for it is possible the animal of Europe and 

 Asia may prove distinct, has a very marked character in the form of the upper 

 lip ; it is undoubtedly an organ of prehension necessary for its mode of life." 



