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. 
Tn 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 his 
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 
4 
