THE ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH. 
177 
precipitous side presenting the outline of her head. 
He told this at some length, though it did not amount 
to much, and with apparent good faith, and asked us 
how we supposed the hunter could have killed such a 
mighty moose as that, — how we could do it. Where¬ 
upon a man-of-war to fire broadsides into her was 
suggested, etc. An Indian tells such a story as if he 
thought it deserved to have a. good deal said about it, 
only he has not got it to say, and so he makes up for 
the. deficiency by a drawling tone, long-windedness, and 
a dumb wonder which he hopes will be contagious. 
We approached the land again through pretty rough 
water, and then steered directly across the lake, at its 
narrowest part, to the eastern side, and were soon partly 
under the lee of the mountain, about a mile north of 
the Kineo House, having paddled about twenty miles. 
It was now about noon. 
We designed to stop there that afternoon and night, 
and spent half an hour looking along the shore north¬ 
ward for a suitable place to camp. We took out all our 
baggage at one place in vain, it being too rocky and 
uneven, and while engaged in this search we made our 
first acquaintance with the moose-fly. At length, half a 
mile farther north, by going half a dozen rods into the 
•» 
dense spruce and fir wood on the side of the mountain, 
almost as dark as a cellar, we found a place sufficiently 
clear and level to lie down on, after cutting away a few 
bushes. We required a space only seven feet by six for 
our bed, the fire being four or five feet in front, though 
it made no odds how rough the hearth was; but it was 
not always easy to find this in those woods. The Indian 
first cleared a path to it from the shore with his axe, and 
we then carried up all our baggage, pitched our tent, and 
8* L 
