“Very well,” the Doctor answered, “we’ll only take a hand in his capture if he’s likely to escape.  So, go ahead.”

As we came within a few yards of the shore, and we could see that the animal’s hoofs touched the bottom, I aimed carefully at his head, and fired.  He made one desperate lunge forward, and turned over on his side, dying with scarcely a straggle, the ball having passed directly through his brain.

This was the first and only live moose I have ever seen.  He was not a large one, being, probably, a three-year-old, but well-grown.  We should have called him a monster, had we not, before that time, seen in various museums the stuffed skins of those a quarter or a third larger.  He would have weighed, as shot, probably between five and six hundred pounds.  He had made this solitary island his home, as we ascertained by his spoor and other signs that we found upon subsequent explorations.  We saw his bed but a few rods from where we landed, and from which our dogs had aroused him, though they, in their excitement, had overrun his scent, and dashed off after a deer.

We had now accomplished one of the objects of our journey in this direction, and as the law we had imposed upon ourselves had reached its limits, prohibiting our shooting another moose that day, even should an opportunity occur, we concluded to return to our shanty, on the lake below.  We, therefore, dressed our moose, and taking with us the skin and hind quarters, started down stream to a late dinner on Little Tupper’s Lake.  Indeed, there was a sort of necessity for our doing so.  We had left our provisions there, calculating to return in the afternoon, not having taken with us even pepper or salt, wherewith to season the food which, upon constraint, we might cook during our absence.  A few crackers, in the pockets of each, was all, in the provision line, that we had provided ourselves with, and though, when we saw the moose-tracks in the sand, we had concluded to rough it, for a single night, for the chance of securing such rare game, yet having secured it, that part of our mission was accomplished, and we turned towards home.

On our return to the lake, Spalding and myself rowed across to the mouth of a cold brook, to procure a supply of fresh trout, upon which, with our moose and bear-meat, to dine.  This we soon accomplished, and on our arrival home, we found huge pieces of moose and bear roasting before a blazing fire.  The meat was supported upon long sticks, one end of which was sharpened, and the meat spitted upon it, and the other thrust into the ground, in a slanting direction, so as to bring the roasting pieces into a proper position before the fire.  The meat was removed occasionally, and turned, until the roasting process was completed, and then served up on clean birch bark, just peeled from the trees, in the place of platters.  We had tin plates, knives, and forks, with us, also a tea-kettle, tin cups, and tea of the choicest quality, sugar, pepper, salt, and pork.  The man who cannot make a meal where the viands present are moose-meat, bear, jerked venison, fresh trout, and pork, and for drink the best of tea and the purest and coldest spring water, had better keep out of the Rackett woods.