142 TsiATUJJAL HISTORY 



LETTER XXX. 



TO THE SAME. 



DEAR SIR; Selborne, Aug. I, 1770. 



The French, I think, in general are 

 strangely prolix in their natural history. 

 What LiiincBus says with respect to insects, 

 holds good in every other branch : Ver- 

 " bositas prceseiitis scbcuU, calamitas artisJ^ 



Pray how do you approve of Scopolis, 

 new work ? as I admire his Entomologia, I 

 long to see it. 



I forgot to mention in tny last letter (and 

 had not room to insert in the former) that 

 the male moose, in rutting time, swims 

 from island to island, in the lakes and 

 rivers of North America, in pursuit of the 

 females. My friend, the chaplain, saw one 

 killed in the water as it was on that errand 

 in the river of St. Lawrence : it was a mon- 

 strous beast, he told me ; but he did not 

 take the dimensions. 



