58 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
feet gate in their ordinary walk. They are described as 
exceedingly awkward-looking animals, with their long legs 
and short bodies, making a ludicrous figure when in full 
run, but making great headway nevertheless. It seemed 
a mystery to us how they could thread these woods, 
which it required all our suppleness to accomplish,— 
climbing, stooping, and winding, alternately. They are 
said to drop their long and branching horns, which 
usually spread five or six feet, on their backs, and make 
their way easily by the weight of their bodies. Our 
boatmen said, but I know not with how much truth, that 
their horns are apt to be gnawed away by vermin while 
they sleep. Their flesh, which is more like beef than 
venison, is common in Bangor market. 
We had proceeded on thus seven or eight miles, till 
about noon, with frequent pauses to refresh the weary 
ones, crossing a considerable mountain stream, which we 
conjectured to be Murcli Brook, at whose mouth we had 
camped, all the time in woods, without having once seen 
the summit, and rising very gradually, when the boat¬ 
men, beginning to despair a little, and fearing that we 
were leaving the mountain on one side of us, for they 
had not entire faith in the compass, McCauslin climbed a 
tree, from the top of which he could see the peak, wdien 
it appeared that we had not swerved from a right line, 
the compass down below still ranging with his arm, which 
pointed to the summit. By the side of a cool mountain 
rill, amid the woods, where the water began to partake 
of the purity and transparency of the air, we stopped to 
cook some of our fishes, which we had brought thus far 
in order to save our hard bread and pork, in the use of 
which we had put ourselves on short allowance. We 
soon had a fire blazing, and stood around it, under the 
