9i NATURAL HISTORY 
other backward, it grazed on the plain ground, with the 
greatest difficulty, between its legs ; the ears were vast and 
lopping, and as long as the neck ; the head was about twenty 
inches long and ass-like, and had such a. redundancy of 
upper lip as I never saw before, with huge nostrils. This 
lip, travellers say, is esteemed a dainty dish in North Ame- 
rica. It is very reasonable to suppose that this creature sup- 
ports 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 some- 
where that it delights in eating the Nymplicea, 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 consisted a great deal in the tibia, which 
was strangely long ; but, in my haste to get out of the 
stench, I forgot 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 probably it 
was not then come to its growth. What a vast tall beast 
must a full grown stag be ! I have been told some arrive at 
ten and a-half feet ! This poor creature had at first a female 
companion of the same species, which died the spring before. 
In the same garden was a young 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 have 
always been a bar to this.^ I should have been glad to 
have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c. minutely ; 
but the putrefaction precluded all farther curiosity. This 
animal, the keeper told me, seemed to enjoy itself best in 
the extreme frost of the former winter. In the house they 
showed me the horn of a male mooge, which had no front 
antlers, but only a broad palm with some snags on the edge. 
^ They belong, moreover, to very distinct genera of the CervidcB, In 
addition to the peculiarities of form described by Gilbert White, the 
moose has broadly palmated horns instead of a rounded stem and antlers 
as in the red deer. — Ed. 
