118 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
Why have so long a head ? Why have no tail to speak 
of? for in my examination I overlooked it entirely. 
Naturalists say it is an inch and a half long. It re¬ 
minded me at once of the camelopard, high before and 
low behind, —- and no wonder, for, like it, it is fitted to 
browse on trees. The upper lip projected two inches 
beyond the lower for this purpose. This was the kind 
of man that was at home there; for, as near as I can 
learn, that has never been the residence, but rather 
the hunting-ground of the Indian. The moose will 
perhaps one day become extinct; but how naturally 
then, when it exists only as a fossil relic, and unseen 
as that, may the poet or sculptor invent a fabulous 
animal with similar branching and leafy horns, — a sort 
of fucus or lichen in bone, — to be the inhabitant of 
such a forest as this! 
Here, just at the head of the murmuring rapids, Joe 
now proceeded to skin the moose with a pocket-knife, 
while I looked on; and a tragical business it was, — to 
see that still warm and palpitating body pierced with 
a knife, to see the warm milk stream from the rent 
udder, and the ghastly naked red carcass appearing 
from within its seemly robe, which was made to hide 
it. The ball had passed through the shoulder-blade 
diagonally and lodged under the skin on the opposite 
side, and was partially flattened. My companion keeps 
it to show to his grandchildren. He has the shanks of 
another moose which he has since shot, skinned and 
stuffed, ready to be made into boots by putting in a thick 
leather sole. Joe said, if a moose stood fronting you, 
you must not fire, but advance toward him, for he will 
turn slowly and give you a fair shot. In the bed of 
this narrow, wild, and rocky stream, between two lofty 
