FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 79 



the tote road. Next came a strip of spruce timber left l)y 

 some combination of circumstances on the north line of the 

 township, to which succeeded a territory that was once 

 heavily covered with pine, where, after the cut of many years 

 ago, the little remaining timber had blown down. jNIuch the 

 same thing was to be seen for three miles, and it had also 

 been found on hirge areas the day before. The early cutting 

 of pine or spruce as the case might bo, had left the remain- 

 ing growth in such shape that the winds had levelled it and 

 the ground was left to cover itself afresh. There was, let me 

 say, no need of planting trees there. Mixed hard woods, among 

 which white birch was most prominent, tilled in under- 

 neath with small fir which here as almost always was mixed 

 with a proportion of spruce, formed generally a dense cover 

 to the ofi'ound. 



Finding at length that our westerly travel had brought us 

 nearly south of Spencer mountain, we shifted course for it. 

 The blowdown was soon left I)eliind, then a spruce country suc- 

 ceeded which had been once and lightly cut through. 

 This soon and rapidly improved, and very soon we found 

 ourselves in what must have been a sample of the finest and 

 thickest spruce timber that ever stood in the region. On 

 smooth land easilv lumbered, with soil fairly liberal wimt inay 



" ^ oe on ii cut- 



and moss-covered, the growth was large fine spruce °hfp." '°^°" 

 with only an advantageous mixture of other species. My 

 man was in the air right away. If he could only get a permit, 

 he would o;o into lousiness for himself, and thouo^ht he could 

 soon make a fortune. Accustomed to cut only saw logs of 

 large size, on the rough and distant lands of Sourdnahunk 

 and the East Branch of the Penobscot, he thought this country 

 would run seven thousand such logs per acre. Cut and scaled 

 as I have seen lumber cut and scaled within the limits of the 

 State, I am confident this territory would jdeld twice that 

 amount. 



It was not our business to trace up bunches of timlier like 

 this. We had no time for it. For a mile in a straight line 

 it lasted, and there was no great variation. At last, on the 



