NATURAL HISTORY OF SEL130UNE 
65 
it, as they do an horse, and found that, from the ground to the withers 
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 straddling with one foot forward and the 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 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 nymphcea, 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 tihia, 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 feet and an half ! 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 any 
commerce of the amorous kind. I should have been glad to have 
examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c. minutely ; but the putre- 
faction 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 moose, which had no 
front antlers, but only a broad palm with some snags on the edge. The 
noble owner of the dead moose proposed to make a skeleton of her bones. 
Please to let me hear if my female moose corresponds with that you 
saw ; and whether you think still that the American moose and European 
elk are the same creature.^ I am, with the greatest esteem, &c. 
* The American moose, cervus alces, Linnaeus ; and, I believe, the dices americanus 
of modern zoologists, "is," writes Major Hamilton Smith, "an inhabitant of 
northern latitudes, in Europe between the 53° and 65°, in Asia from 35° to 15°, and 
in America between the 44° and 53°, round the great lakes, and over the whole of 
Canada and New Brunswick. But this is quite a different animal from that 
found in a fossil state and known as the elk. It is the cervus gigoMeus of Cuvier, 
and fine specimens of the remains have been found in the bogs of Ireland and the 
Isle of Man. The American elk, for it is possible the animal of Europe and 
Asia may prove distinct, has a very marked character in the form of the upper 
lip ; it is undoubtedly an organ of prehension necessary for its mode of life." 
