26 Account of an Excursion to Mount Katahdin. 
the rocks to fish, the rest prepared for our night camp. Mr. Barnes 
and myself collected for our couch the fragrant boughs of the cedar, 
(Thwa occidentalis,) while our guides cut down bushes and pulled 
up their roots from the spot selected for an encampment. Our friend 
Cyrus ina few minutes chopped down a mighty hemlock, which fell 
with a tremendous crash ; its trunk was to serve for our back log, 
against which we soon had a fine blazing fire. Four stakes support- 
ing cross pieces, over which were thrown a couple of blankets fas- 
tened together by wooden pegs, formed a very comfortable tent, 
under which we spread a soft carpet of twigs. 
Mr. Keely appeared presently with a fine mess of white perch and 
chub, which when fried, furnished us a delicious meal. ‘The stump 
of the hemlock served as our table and the clean chips as plates. 
The whole scene formed a picture worthy of the pencil of Weir. 
During the night it rained hard, but our blankets proved sufficient 
protection. After a good night’s rest we went forward again the 
next morning, (Friday,) having first caught and cannes for our break- 
fast another fine mess of fish. 
At all the falls which we had passed since leaving Grand Falls, 
we found the rocks to be loose boulders of granite ; but this morning 
we observed just below Debskoneegan Falls a large ledge of granite 
in situ. ‘This is the most southern point where we had an opportu- 
nity of seeing it 2m situ during this journey. At these falls we were 
obliged to carry our boat a distance of about ninety eight rods, when 
we again launched her. 
From Debskoneegan Lake the view of Katahdin is very fine. I 
have attempted in the accompanying sketch to give some idea of its 
outline. (See the fig.) The mountain on the right is Katahdin ; (A) 
the large western slide, and (B) the eastern. The mountain on the 
extreme left is Sugar Loaf; it bears.a striking resemblance to a vol- 
canic mountain, of which the remarkable depression in its summit 
represents the crater. We were unable to determine whether this 
apparent hollowing out of the summit was real, or an optical decep- 
tion produced by the receding ridge. Between the two principal slides 
(A) and (B), the chief growth upon the mountain appeared to be 
very low deciduous trees. 'These we afterwards found to be white 
birch, (Betula populifolia.) The eastern and western extremities 
the mountain beyond the above mentioned slides, presented the 
dark green color of the evergreen pines and furs. The summit and 
a considerable space below, bare of vegetation. On the lower pas 
