136 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
for our forest appetites. It would be worth the while 
to cultivate them, both for beauty and for food. I 
afterward saw them in a garden in Bangor. Joe said 
that they were called ebeemenar. 
While we were getting supper, Joe commenced curing 
the moose-hide, on which I had sat a good part of the 
voyage, he having already cut most of the hair off with 
his knife at the Caucomgomoc. He set up two stout 
forked poles on the bank, seven or eight feet high, and 
as much asunder east and west, and having cut slits 
eight or ten inches long, and the same distance apart, 
close to the edge, on the sides of the hide, he threaded 
poles through them, and then, placing one of the poles 
on the forked stakes, tied the other down tightly at the 
bottom. The two ends also were tied with cedar-bark, 
their usual string, to the upright poles, through small 
holes at short intervals. The hide, thus stretched, and 
slanted a little to the north, to expose its flesh side to 
the sun, measured, in the extreme, eight feet long by 
six high. Where any flesh still adhered, Joe boldly 
scored it with his knife to lay it open to the sun. It 
now appeared somewhat spotted and injured by the duck 
shot. You may see the old frames on which hides have 
been stretched at many camping-places in these woods. 
For some reason or other, the going to the forks of 
the Penobscot was given up, and we decided to stop 
here, my companion intending to hunt down the stream 
at night. The Indians invited us to lodge with them, 
but my companion inclined' to go to the log-camp on 
the carry. This camp was close and dirty, and had an 
ill smell, and I preferred to accept the Indians’ offer, 
if we did not make a camp for ourselves ; for, though 
they were dirty, too, they were more in the open air, 
