OF SELBORNE 69 



LETTER XXVIII 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Selborne, March, 1 7 70. 

 On Michaelmas-day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the 

 female moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at 

 Goodwood ; but was greatly disappointed, when I arrived 

 at the spot, to find that it died, after having appeared in a 

 languishing way for some time, on the morning before. 

 However, understanding that it was not stripped, I pro- 

 ceeded to examine this rare quadruped : I found it in an 

 old green-house, slung under the belly and chin by ropes, 

 and in a standing posture ; but, though it had been dead 

 for so short a time, it was in so putrid a state that the 

 stench was hardly supportable. The grand distinction 

 between this deer, and any other species that I have ever 

 met with, consisted in the strange length of its legs ; on 

 which it was tilted up much in the manner of birds of the 

 grallae order. I measured it, as they do an horse, and 

 found that, from the ground to the wither, 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 leg and great lip must 

 contribute much. I have read somewhere that it delights 

 in eating the nymphaea, or water-lily. From the fore-feet 



