ain.

This was the first and only live moose I have ever seen. He was not a
large one, being, probably, a three-year-old, but well-grown. We
should have called him a monster, had we not, before that time, seen
in various museums the stuffed skins of those a quarter or a third
larger. He would have weighed, as shot, probably between five and six
hundred pounds. He had made this solitary island his home, as we
ascertained by his spoor and other signs that we found upon subsequent
explorations. We saw his bed but a few rods from where we landed, and
from which our dogs had aroused him, though they, in their excitement,
had overrun his scent, and dashed off after a deer.

We had now accomplished one of the objects of our journey in this
direction, and as the law we had imposed upon ourselves had reached
its limits, prohibiting our shooting another moose that day, even
should an opportunity occur, we concluded to return to our shanty, on
the lake below. We, therefore, dressed our moose, and taking with us
the skin and hind quarters, started down stream to a late dinner on
Little Tupper's Lake. Indeed, there was a sort of necessity for our
doing so. We had left our provisions there, calculating to return in
the afternoon, not having taken with us even pepper or salt, wherewith
to season the food which, upon constraint, we might cook during our
absence. A few crackers, in the pockets of each, was all, in the
provision line, that we had provided ourselves with, and though, when
we saw the moose-tracks in the sand, we had concluded to rough it, for
a single night, for the chance of securing such rare game, yet having
secured it, that part of our mission was accomplished, and we turned
towards home.

On our return to the lake, Spalding and myself rowed across to the
mouth of a cold brook, to procure a supply of fresh trout, upon which,
with our moose and bear-meat, to dine. This we soon accomplished, and
on our arrival home, we found huge pieces of moose and bear roasting
before a blazing fire. The meat was supported upon long sticks, one
end of which was sharpened, and the meat spitted upon it, and the
other thrust into the ground, in a slanting direction, so as to bring
the roasting pieces into a proper position before the fire. The meat
was removed occasionally, and turned, until the roasting process was
completed, and then served up on clean birch bark, just peeled from
the trees, in the place of platters. We had tin plate