23 Account of an Excursion to Mount Katahdin. 
of the mountain we observed an appearance indicating horizontal 
terraces. 
After taking the annexed sketch, and examining the plants near 
the shore, among which I found Potentiila fruticosa growing abun- 
dantly, we continued our route and soon arrived at the Pockwock- 
amus Falls, which presented a very wild and picturesque scene. It 
is an immense collection of fragments of granite, rounded and pol- 
ished by the action of the current, which in many places has, by the 
attrition of the gravel and pebbles, worn circular cavities in the rocks. 
Upon the rocks are piled, in wild confusion, a great quantity of 
logs, which have formed at these falls a ‘‘jam,’’ which the loggers 
had not been able to loosen. We noticed several places where the 
rocks had been blasted to liberate the Jumber. It was with much 
Jabor that we transported our baggage over these rocks, while our 
boatmen forced the empty boat up the falls. The next falls we ar- 
rived at are called Abawljacarmegas, where a fine ledge of granite 
of the best quality is well exposed in the bed of the river. 
We arrived early in the afternoon at Hoyt’s stream, where we 
hauled our boat on shore, turned her over, and deposited under the 
bottom the greater part of our provisions, our gun, frying pan, extra 
clothing, &c.; then, having made up our packs with one blanket 
each, and a short allowance of provisions for two days, we proceed- 
ed on foot for the mountain, from whose base we estimated our dis- 
tance to be about three miles. Our guides were now upon ground 
entirely new to them, neither of them having ever ascended the 
the mountain. We directed our course towards the slide marked 
(A) in the drawing. Having no path to direct us, we found our 
journey exceedingly difficult. The first part of our way was over 
a ridge where the woods had been burned ; here our principal an- 
noyance was caused by a very small black fly, which our guides 
called ‘‘ minges,’”’ and to which the Indians give the appropriate 
name of “ No-see-’ems.”’ After leaving the “ burnt woods,” we 
descended into a dense cedar swamp, from which we extricated our- 
selves with much labor, and then soon struck upon a rapid mountain 
brook, which for the purity and transparency of its water, surpassed 
all I had ever beheld. We followed this stream a while, but finding 
that it was leading us from our course we left it and turned to the 
west, by doing which we soon arrived at the slide. Here a scene of 
wild confusion presented itself ; masses of granite, shivered by their 
fall from above, lay scattered over the path of the slide ; all traces of 
