338 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90. 



wilderness of waves ; the rocky ramparts that guard 

 its coasts ; its deep, still bays and foaming head- 

 lands ; the towering cliffs of the Grand Menan ; the 

 innumerable islands that cluster about Penobscot 

 Bay ; and the romantic highlands of Mount Desert, 

 down whose gorges the sea-fog rolls like an invad- 

 ing host, while the spires of fir-trees pierce the 

 surging vapors like lances in the smoke of battle. 



Leaving Pentegoet, and sailing westward all day 

 along a solitude of woods, one might reach the 

 English outpost of Pemaquid, and thence, still 

 sailing on, might anchor at evening off Casco Bay, 

 and see in the glowing west the distant peaks of 

 the White Mountains, spectral and dim amid the 

 weird and fiery sunset. 



Inland Acadia was all forest, and vast tracts of 

 it are a primeval forest still. Here roamed the 

 Abenakis with their kindred tribes, a race wild as 

 their haunts. In habits they were all much alike. 

 Their villages were on the waters of the Andro- 

 scoggin, the Saco, the Kennebec, the Penobscot, the 

 St. Croix, and the St. John ; here in spring they 

 planted their corn, beans, and pumpkins, and then, 

 leaving them to grow, went down to the sea in 

 their birch canoes. They returned towards the 

 end of summer, gathered their harvest, and went 

 again to the sea, where they lived in abundance on 

 ducks, geese, and other water-fowl. During winter, 

 most of the women, children, and old men remained 

 in the villages ; while the hunters ranged the forest 

 in chase of moose, deer, caribou, beavers, and bears. 



Their summer stay at the seashore was perhaps 



