Lake Umabgog.
Moose Point
1896
August 27
(No 5)
more than ten or a dozen steps without pausing to rest and to
look about him and the manner in which he raised and put
down his feet - stiffly, laboriously and with evident caution -
suggested most vividly the heavy cart horse on treacherous
ground. Nor would a cart house - or an elephant for that
matter - have appeared be me more out of keeping with the surroundings
than did this Moose [delete]as I watched him while out[/delete] on the marsh
which bears his name. He seemed like some long-forgotten
antedeluvian creature which, arousing from a sleep of thousands
of years, was wandering aimlessly about in a land so changed
that it no longer had any place for such strange monsters. When
walking he carried his head & neck stretched out and a little
below the line of the back with the nose directed forward
and downwards, the ears laid back on the side of the neck
so closely that they were inconspicuous. [illus]
  But slow as were his steps they were positively nimble compared
to the movements of his head when he raised and turned it
from side to side. Even the startling reports of the guns failed
to accelerate this motion. But they did arouse in the creature
an expression very different from his habitual one of stolid
almost weary indifference. Stretching himself to his full
height with the head erect and the big ears raised and directed
slightly forward he would gaze intently in the direction
from which the sounds came with a look of surly enquiry,
almost of defiance at times. "What is all this racket about?
What are these fellows doing here? [delete]I have half a[/delete] Do they not
know that I own this marsh? I have half a mind to
cross it & teach them a lesson. But no! it is not worth
the trouble," as the ears were again laid back and the
expression of apathy returned.