100 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



Indian proclaimed the unwelcome fact. At length we 

 reached the most elevated part of the barren. We could 

 see the wooded hills of the opposite shore of the lake 

 looming darkly through the mist, and here and there a 

 portion of its dark waters. The country was very open; 

 nothing but moss and stunted huckleberry bushes, about 

 a foot and a half in height, covered it, save here and 

 there a bunch of dwarf maples, with a few scarlet leaves 

 still clinging to them. The forms of prostrate trunks, 

 blackened by fire, lying across the bleached rocks, often 

 gave me a start, as, seen at a distance through the dark 

 misty air, they resembled the forms of our long-sought 

 game — particularly so when surmounted by twisted roots 

 upheaved in their fall, which appeared to crown them 

 with antlers. 



" Stop, Capten ! not a move ! '* suddenly whispered old 

 Joe, who was crossing the barren a few yards to my left ; 

 ** don't move one bit ! " he half hissed and half said 

 through his teeth. "Down — sink down — slow — like 

 me ! '' and we all gradually subsided in the wet bushes. 



I had not seen him ; I knew it was a moose, though I 

 dared not ask Joe, but quietly awaited further directions. 

 Presently, on Joe's invitation, I slowly dragged my body 

 through the bushes to him. " Now you see him, Capten — 

 there — there! My sakes, what fine bull! What pity 

 we not a little nearer — such open country ! " 



There he stood — a gigantic fellow — black as night, 

 moving his head, which was surmounted by massive 

 white-looking horns, slowly from side to side, as he 

 scanned the country around. He evidently had not seen 

 us, and was not alarmed, so we all breathed freely. This 

 success on our part was partly attributable to the sudden- 



