FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 57 



"From this point there are good water communications in 

 different directions exceeding 290 miles, through the state lands 

 alone, with only four portages, the longest of which does not 

 exceed two miles. Considering the county in sections, referring 

 to the quality of the good land and proportion, it appears that 

 of the section immediately west of JMoosehead lake containing 

 about 276,000 acres, one-third is good land. The wdiole tract 

 west of this, (about 849,000 acres, including that in the county 

 of Oxford,) is mountainous, and about one-fourth good land, 



"Between Moosehead lake and the East Branch of Penobscot, 

 including a tract north of this, about the heads of the Aroos- 

 took, about 1,160,000 acres, of which one-third may be consid- 

 ered good land ; this tract is generally mountainous, and not 

 so rugged as the tract last mentioned. 



"Between Penobscot, Schoodic and Mattawamkeag, generally 

 level, say about 640,000 acres, one-half good land. 



"North of Mattawamkeag is a tract of low, swampy land, 

 about 300,000 acres of which probably not more than one-fourth 

 is good land, and about 1,400,000 acres of which one-half is 

 good. 



"In the N. E. corner of the district is a mountainous tract 

 probably 780,000 acres, quality unknown. 



"The remaining land, about 6,400,000 acres, on the waters of 

 St. John and the northwestern branches of the Penobscot, is a 

 continued body of good land, extending from the eastern to the 

 northwestern frontier of which three-fourths is good land. 

 The eastern part is generally level, the western rises in large 

 swells, there are no mountains of consequence from the ten 

 townships laid out on the Kennebec road until very near the 

 northeastern extremity. The most central part of the good 

 land in this tract is rather west of the meridian of Bangor. 



"The tract on the eastern frontier can be made most easily 

 ■accessible to settlers, only from the St. John. The remainder 

 may be easily made accessible both by land and water, from 

 parts already settled within the district. 



"In estimating the different proportions of good land as above 

 described, reference is had only to land of the first quality in the 

 several sections, the proportions between third, fourth, and so 

 on, have not been so much the objects of my research and there- 



