120 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
little concave, to give the barbs effect. After about a 
mile of still water, we prepared our camp on the right 
side, just at the foot of a considerable fall. Little chop¬ 
ping was done that night, for fear of scaring the moose. 
We had moose-meat fried for supper. It tasted like 
tender beef, with perhaps more flavor, — sometimes like 
veal. 
After supper, the moon having risen, we proceeded to 
hunt a mile up this stream, first “ carrying ” about the 
falls. We made a picturesque sight, wending single-file 
along the shore, climbing over rocks and logs, — Joe, 
who brought up the rear, twirling his canoe in his hands 
as if it were a feather, in places where it was difficult 
to get along without a burden. We launched the canoe 
again from the ledge over which the stream fell, but 
after half a mile of still water, suitable for hunting, it 
became rapid again, and we were compelled to make 
our way along the shore, while Joe endeavored to get 
up in the birch alone, though it was still very difficult 
for him to pick his way amid the rocks in the night. 
We on the shore found the worst of walking, a perfect 
chaos of fallen and drifted trees, and of bushes project¬ 
ing far over the water, and now and then we made our 
way across the mouth of a small tributary on a kind 
of net-work of alders. So we went tumbling on in 
the dark, being on the shady side, effectually scaring 
all the moose and bears that might be thereabouts. 
At length we came to a standstill, and Joe went forward 
to reconnoitre ; but he reported that it was still a con¬ 
tinuous rapid as far as he went, or half a mile, with 
no prospect of improvement, as if it were coming down 
from a mountain. So we turned about, hunting back 
to the camp through the still water. It was a splendid 
