LUMBER-TRADE OF MAINE AND GEORGIA. 223 



generally light, soils are formed by or upon this drift ; 

 and even where hardwood or mixed trees grow, and 

 appear to indicate a better soil, the number of stones is 

 often so great as entirely to forbid the possibility, under 

 present circumstances at least, of clearing the land for 

 crops in a profitable manner. But a country over 

 laid with snow may have appeared to me, even where 

 covered with wood, more dreary and hopeless than if I 

 had crossed it in the season of summer. 



Dec. 27. The railway from Boston is now nearly com 

 pleted to Bangor. It had been opened as far as Water- 

 ville, forty-five miles from Bangor, at the period of my 

 visit, and at 6 A.M. I started from the latter place in a 

 covered sleigh for the railway terminus. It was a public 

 stage, and I found an agreeable party inside, who made 

 the time pass more pleasantly than the last three severe 

 days had done. The thermometer was still very low, 

 and we required all our skins to shelter us ; but we 

 drove quietly and smoothly on over the slightly yield 

 ing snow, and soon after one o clock arrived at Water- 

 ville. 



Maine may be considered as the headquarters of the 

 northern lumber-trade of the States. There are here 

 many speculators in this branch of business ; and it 

 is interesting to learn how States so remote as those of 

 Maine in the north, and Georgia in the south, should be 

 connected together by a community of pursuit, and 

 should offer similar fields of enterprise for the same men. 

 Throughout all New England, the lumber-trade has been 

 to the earlier inhabitants of the several States, of which 

 it consists, what it .still is to Maine and New Bruns 

 wick. But as the best timber disappeared, the lumber 

 merchants have sought from to time new forests ; and it 

 was a desire to possess those of the valley of the Aroostook 

 that chiefly stirred up the people of Maine in the dispute V 

 as to the New Brunswick boundary. Since that time, 



