THE'ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH. 
271 
of some anxiety. This reminded me of the Ambejijis 
Lake on the West Branch, which I crossed in my first 
coming to Maine. Having paddled down three quarters 
of the lake, we came to a stand still, while my companion 
let down for fish. A white (or whitish) gull sat on a 
rock which rose above the surface in mid-lake not far off, 
quite in harmony with the scene; and as we rested there 
in the warm sun, we heard one loud crushing or crack¬ 
ling sound from the forest, forty or fifty rods distant, as of 
a stick broken by the foot of some large animal. Even 
this was an interesting incident there. In the midst of 
our dreams of giant lake-trout, even then supposed to 
be nibbling, our fisherman drew up a diminutive red 
perch, and we took up our paddles again in haste. 
It was not apparent where the outlet of this lake was, 
and while the Indian thought it was in one direction, I 
thought it was in another. He said, “ I bet you four- 
pence it is there,” but he still held on in my direction, 
which proved to be the right one. As we were approach¬ 
ing the outlet, it being still early in the^ forenoon, he sud¬ 
denly exclaimed, “ Moose! moose ! ” and told us to be 
still. He put a cap on his gun, and standing up in the 
stern, rapidly pushed the canoe straight toward the shore 
and the moose. It was a cow-moose, about thirty rods 
off, standing in the water by the side of the outlet, partly 
behind some fallen timber and bushes, and at that dis¬ 
tance she did not look very large. She was flapping her 
large ears, and from time to time poking, off the flies with 
her nose from some part of her body. She did not ap¬ 
pear much alarmed by our neighborhood, only occasion¬ 
ally turned her head and looked straight at us, and then 
gave her attention to the flies again. As we approached 
nearer, she got out of the water, stood higher and re- 
