A MOOSE IN THE FOREST. 73 



sued, for homicide was nearly the result, whether justifia- 

 ble or not must be for others to decide ; but St. Francis 

 was not long honored with my presence. Of moose-hunt- 

 ing I had seen enough for one season, and for many a year 

 not even my bosom friends knew that I had ever made an 

 attempt to slay the noblest of all the deer family. 



In the close, warm weather of July and August this game 

 is much pestered with flies. To avoid these, plagues, the 

 moose almost becomes aquatic in his habits ; for hours he 

 will completely submerge himself, with naught but his head 

 above the surface. At this season their principal food is 

 the long, succulent limbs and leaves of the water-lily. In 

 the tributary streams that help to feed Moosehead Lake it 

 is no uncommon thing for the fisherman or tourist, on hi 

 aquatic excursions, to come across moose floating, or see 

 them reach the shore in advance of him, alarmed either by 

 the voices or wind of the strangers. Such was my fortune 

 once when fishing in a tributary of Lake Parmacheney. 

 Trout had all day been on the feed ; my gun lay carelessly 

 at my feet, half buried in blankets and other hunter's para- 

 phernalia in the bottom of my canoe, which I had permit- 

 ted silently to drift with the current. Suddenly I heard a 

 splash, as if all the fish in the river had collected to make 

 a simultaneous rise ; but instead of fin, it was fur, and a 

 splendid moose, bearing a noble head of antlers, plunged 

 through the weeds, and soon disappeared in the recesses of 

 the forest. If, I had been prepared, or even had my gun 

 been obtainable at a minute's notice, I could almost with 

 certainty have administered the coup de grace. 



When the season advances, and the sparse advent snows 

 occasionally give warning that winter is at hand, the moose- 

 deer leave the morass and river banks for higher ground. 

 Here they collect in families, previous to yarding, which 

 takes place as soon as the lands of these northern wilds 



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