24 



THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



"the Common light grey Moose y by the Indians 

 called Wampoose;^^ these are more like the ordi- 

 nary Deer, spring like them, and herd sometimes 

 to thirty in a Company. And then there are 

 the large, or black Moose, of which I shall now 

 give you the following Account. First, That he is 

 the Head of the Deer-kind, has many things in 

 Common with other Deer, in many things differs, 

 but in all very superiour. ... He has a very 

 short Bob for a Tail. Mr. Neal, in his late History 

 of this Country, speaking of the Moose, says 

 they have a long Tail; but that Gentleman was 

 imposed on, as to other things besides the Moose. 

 Our Hunters have found a Buck, or Stagg-Moose, 

 of fourteen Spans in heighth from the Withers, 

 reckoning nine inches to a Span; a quarter of his 

 Venison weighed more than two hundred pounds. 

 A few Years since, a Gentleman surprized one of 

 these black Moose, in his Grounds within two 

 miles of Boston; it proved a Doe or Hind of the 

 fourth Year: After she was dead, they measured 

 her upon the Ground, from the Nose to the Tail, 

 between ten and eleven Feet, she wanted an Inch 

 of seven Foot in height. The Horns of the Moose, 

 when full grown, are between four and five Foot 

 from the Head to the Tip, and have seven Shoots 



33 The wapiti. 



