180 
MOOSE DEER. 
amid the scenery of his own wilderness, no animal could appear more 
majestic or more imposing.” Having ourselves on one occasion been favour- 
ed with a similar opportunity, when we had the gratification of bringing 
one down with a rifle and of examining him in detail as he lay before us, 
Ave confe.ss he appeared awkward in his gait, clumsy and disproportioned 
in limbs, uncouth and inelegant in form, and possessing less symmetry 
and beauty than any other species of the deer family. His great 
size, enormous head, and face like a horse, and the thundering noise of 
the saplings bending and snapping around him as he rattled over the fallen 
logs, was to us the only imposing part of the spectacle. To do justice, 
however, to the description of the moose, by Smith, who was a close 
observer and a naturalist of considerable attainments, we should quote 
his succeeding observations : “ It is, however, the aggregate of his ajipear- 
ance which produces this effect ; for when the proportions of its structure 
are considered in detail, they certainly will seem destitute of that harmony 
of parts which in the imagination produces the feeling of beauty.” 
The head forcibly reminds us of that of an enormous jackass ; it is long 
narrow and clumsily shaped, by the swelling on the upper part of the 
nose and nostrils ; the snout is long and almost prehensile — the muzzle 
extending four inches beyond the lower lip. The nostrils are narrow and 
long, five inches in length. The eye is deep-seated, and in proportion to the 
large head is small. The ears are long, 14 inches, heavy and asinine. 
The neck is very short, and is surmounted by a compact mane of moderate 
length composed of coarse rigid hairs. There is in both sexes a tuft 
of coarse hairs, resembling hog’s bristles, beneath the throat, which is 
attached to a pendulous gland, more conspicuous in young than in 
old animals ; this gland with the attached hair is ten inches long. 
The horns, which are found only on the males, are, when a year old, merely 
short knobs ; they increase in size after each annual shedding, and after 
the fourth year become palmated, and may be termed full grown about the 
fifth year. The palms on the horns of the Moose are on the widest part on 
a moderate-sized male about 1 1 inches wide. The space between the roots, 
6^^ inches ; greatest breadth at the root, fii inches ; from the root to the 
extremity, measuring around the curve, 8 feet 10 inches. The first branch 
or prong on the inner side of the horn commences nine inches from the base. 
It here divides into two branches, one being ten and the other eleven in- 
ches in length, measuring in a eurve from the root to the largest point 25 
inches. These two prongs on each side incline forward, are almost round, 
and are pointed like those of elk horns. . The palms on the main branches 
of the horns not only differ in dilferent individuals, but do not often cor- 
respond on the head of the same animal. In the specimen from which 
