20 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



after some early fire. The oriaiiial growth conies down in 

 lobes and patches, however, while to the west the countiy 

 has never been burnt. A large basin to the northwest was 

 filled with hard woods, among Avhich after cutting but few 

 evergreen tops were showing, while on the heights and 

 steeper slopes the spruce stood nearly pure, running up 

 finally to where it was stunted and unfit for lumber. Five 

 months later, Avhen the circuit of travel was nearly complete, 

 I got another look at this same country. Tramping down 

 the Carrabasset from Eustis and Coplin, I climbed to the 

 highest point in the east part of Jerusalem township, and got 

 from there a bird's-eye view of the whole surrounding country. 

 Here, let us note, is one point established in the to-be 

 forest map of the State. The high lands in Lexington, Con- 

 cord and Highland are, in this longitude, the southern bound- 

 ary of the region in which spruce was and is a prominent 

 feature of the forest growth. 



DEAD RIVER. 



Passing around the east end of Mt. Bigelow, the road 

 strikes the Dead river not far from Bog brook, the upper end of 

 the old and historic carry ; thence it follows the smooth land 

 along the river up to Flagstaff and Eustis. The elevation of 

 this valley is, as near as I can learn, somewhere about 1,200 

 feet above the sea. Elevated to that extent, and separated 

 from the country south Ijy the mountain barrier mentioned, 

 the region loses some of the forest trees which characterize 

 the southwestern portion of the State. Pine was the timber 

 of the lower and richer lands. Hard woods and spruce clothed 

 the slopes and the mountains. 



and^larfy * Here again the native character of the growth 

 ^^'^^' has been disguised bv fire. The first settlement 



on Dead river is said to have been made in 1818. Mr. Caleb 

 Stevens, of Stratton, says that in January of that year his 

 father hauled his wife and nine children through the woods 

 from Kingfield on an ox sled, and the clearing fires of those 



