78 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



such work is to mislead and to scare us, then we certainly will 

 be better off without it. 



That what has been said about this township is not at all an 

 exceptional thing, all careful observers, especially those on 

 the Penobscot river, can testify. My trip across the north 

 end of the township showed the same thing, this being taken 

 not so much for this purpose as to get onto Spencer mountain 

 for the bird's-eye view of the country. This time I had a 

 collect"^ *° companion in the shape of a young and active 

 staHstics. Penobscot lumberman. He carried a tent and blan- 

 kets in the most compact form known — that of an axe 

 namely; I had my calipers, while the crackers, pork, tea, and 

 extremely suspicious looking meat with which we had been 

 provided was divided between us. We climbed the moun- 

 tain, traversed the Lazy Tom country, crossed Spencer Bay 

 town to Moosehead lake as already noted in these pages, — 

 spent, in fact, four very active and delightful days together. 

 When night came on we would pick a chance beside some 

 brook, get down enough wood to keep a good hre going all 

 night, and lie down under the open sky, lirst to talk and then 

 to sleep. I recommend this style of camping to all who want 

 to thoroughly enjoy the woods. The only drawback about 

 the sleeping accommodations lies in the fact that if the weather 

 is cool, and one is at all uneasy, he is likely to roll over in 

 the night and stick his feet in the fire. 



But to o-et back to business. Returning on the Grant farm 

 tote road to a point within I R. XIII, and striking westerly 

 by the compass so as to keep well within the limits of the 

 town, hard wood with very little spruce was traversed for a 

 mile. Then we waded Bear brook, after which came a burn 

 of twenty years ago, noted the day previous where it crossed 



1 can illustrate by anotber example the untrust worthiness of hearsay in regsird 

 to timber. A mountainous ton-wship was was cut through some years ago for its 

 best and handiest spruce. Plenty of men, men that helped cut it, think and say 

 all the timber was got; and conversation with the owners, unless with a view to 

 purchase, will not reverse that idea. As a matter of fact no portion of it was cut 

 clean, while great bodies of high and rough land, covered with magnificent 

 spruce, were left entirely untouched. Parties have desired to buy it on the basis 

 of estimates of more than forty million. 



