LETTER XXXII. 



To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



Ox Michaelmas-day, 1768, I managed to get a 

 sight of the female moose belonging to the Duke of 

 Richmond, at Goodwood ; but was greatly disap- 

 pointed, 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, under- 

 standing that it was not stripped, I proceeded to ex- 

 amine this rare quadruped : I found it in an old 

 green-house, slung vmder 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 the birds of the grallce 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 strad- 

 dling with one foot forward and the other backward, 

 it grazed on the plain ground, with the greatest diffi- 

 culty, between its legs : the ears were vast and lop- 



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