ping, and as long as the neck; the head was about 

 twenty inches long, and ass-like ; and had such a re- 

 dundancy of upper lip as I never saw before, with 

 huge nostrils. This lip, travellers say, is esteemed a 

 daintv 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 nyin- 

 pJicea, 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 con- 

 sisted a great deal in the tibia, which was strangely 

 long ; but, in my haste to get out of the stench, I for- 

 got 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 probablv it was not then come to 

 its ofrowth. What a vast tall beast must a full-gfrown 

 ,stag be ! I have been told that some arrive at ten 

 feet and a half I This poor creature had at fir|t a 

 female companion of the same species, which died 

 the spring before. In the same garden was a voung 

 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 always be a bar, I should 



127 



