MOOSE DEER. 
87 
moose belonging to the duke of Richmond, at Goodwood; but 
was greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find 
that it died, after having, appeared in a languishing way for some 
time, on the morning before. However, understanding that it 
was not stripped, I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped : 
I found it in an old green-house, 
slung under the belly and chin by 
ropes, and in a standing posture ; 
but, though it had been dead for so 
short a time, it was in so putrid a 
state that the stench was hardly sup- 
portable. The grand distinction be- 
tween this deer, and any other species 
that I have ever met with, consisted Moose Deer, 
in the strange length of its legs ; on which it was tilted up much 
in the manner of the birds of the grallce order. I measured it, 
as they do a horse, and found that, from the ground to the 
wither, 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 diflSculty, 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 
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 ! 
