NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 387 
The Moose Deer, p. 99.— My friend, Colonel Hardy, E.A., 
wlio has exhausted the history of the moose in liis book,^ 
has kindly given me the following valuable note : — Mr. White's 
account of the Moose Deer contained in Letter XXXII. is, as 
is usual in his descriptions of objects of natural history coming 
under his personal notice, both graphic and accurate; in justi- 
fication of which remark, as an authority, I submit my own 
long acquaintance with the monarch of the North American 
pine forests, acquired during a sojourn of many years in the 
woods of Canada ; and also here apologize for the introduction 
of a few further observations on the natural history and habits 
of an animal which I have always regarded with the greatest 
interest, and which has formed the subject of a considerable 
portion of my American sketches both in pen and pencil. 
The moose in question when seen by White had died the 
morning before, having been in a languishing way for some time. 
This has been, and will be, I fear, the inevitable and speedy fate 
of every individual of this species, whether American moose or 
European elk, attempted to be introduced alive into this country. 
Hence its absence from our zoological gardens. Even in the 
locality of its own natural habitat, the Alcine deer is difficult to 
keep in confinement. It requires much freedom of range. I 
have w^atched many instances in America, and kept them in a 
state of domestication myself ; and excepting where the animals 
have had free access to the outskirts of their native forest, have 
never known them really thrive, It is a fact well known to the 
Indians that the elk or moose, as the species is designated in 
America, seeks various shrubs and herbs as medicine for intes- 
tinal disorder to which it is remarkably subject, white oak bark 
being one frequently used and evidently as an astringent, moun- 
tain ash and other bitter shrubs as tonics, &c. ; whilst the food 
it partakes of in a state of nature is generally of too varied a 
character to be afforded in confinement. Though, when in the 
latter state, the elk will eat with avidity a variety of roots and 
substances such as potatoes, beans or peas — a diet which soon 
kills it except when most sparingly introduced — in its native 
forests it browses so exclusively upon the terminal shoots 
of young trees and bushes as to well merit the title of wood- 
eater. 
I have never seen any sign of moose having cropped the rank 
grass of wild forest meadows (beaver meadows) or the short 
pasture of wood-side clearings in the settlements. The only 
' Ftrfe " Forest Life in Amidie,'' and ''Sporting Adventures in the New 
World." 
c c 2 
