FOREST COMMISSIONERS REPORT. 19 



SPRUCE ON THE KENNEBEC RIVER. 



Provided with a compact outfit of necessary Growthon 



1 - lower ken- 



clothes, papers and instruments, I started from "^'^^^c. 



Skowhegan on June 13th for Flagstaff on the Dead river. 

 Spruce being the subject of inquiry I was on the watch for it 

 from the start. None was seen, however, for a long distance. 

 Pine was the original coniferous timber of these down-river 

 towns along with some hemlock and cedar and these were 

 mixed and alternated with hard wood. It is the latter ele- 

 ment of the original forest that is most prominent to-day, 

 thouuh ofroves of vouns: pine, lineallv descended from the 

 ancient crop, are bv no means lackin«-. Alonir here the 

 standard hard woods of Maine, l^eecli, maple and yellow birch 

 were noted to l)e min<rled with those belonoincr to onh' its 

 warmer and lower portions, oak and bass-wood. 



Stopping over night at Xew Portland, a town ^{j^i\"p"'^*'''^' 

 which possesses an interesting industry in the shape T.exington. 

 of a spool and novelty mill, the stage started north again 

 next morning bound for Dead River via Lexinaton and Hio'h- 

 land. Lexington village is in a big fiat, spreading each side 

 from Sandy stream. Mountains lie on the east line of the 

 town and another range, thrown across Highland ])lantation 

 and down the east side of Jerusalem, separates Sandy stream 

 from the drainage of the Dead river and Carrabasset. Over 

 this last range the road goes in the l)est pass it can find, 

 climl)ing on the passage to a height of 1,000 feet above the 

 flat, and descending thence to the level country east of 

 Bigelow on the Dead river. 



Here, on the high lands al)()ut Lexington, spruce fj""ft\^f''' 

 to any amount was for the first time seen. The i^e?,]", ',",','. 

 lower slopes of the mountains to the north and east of Lex- 

 ington are covered mainly with white birch* grown ui) thickly 



*Wliite bircli in the nioutli of a Maine man iilways means IJetula papyraoea 

 B. populifolia is calleil gray bircli. Yellow birch as commonly usetl includes 

 B. lutea and B lenta. 



