94 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 Ame- 

 rica. It is very reasonable to suppose that this creature sup- 

 ports 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 some- 

 where that it delights in eating the Nymphcea t 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 and a-half feet ! 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 this. 1 I should have been glad to 

 have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c. minutely ; 

 but the putrefaction 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. 



1 They belong, moreover, to very distinct genera of the Cervida. In 

 addition to the peculiarities of form described by Gilbert White, the 

 moose has broadly palmated horns instead of a rounded stem and antlers 

 as in the red deer. ED. 



