228 RIVER LIFE, 



View of Lily Bay, on Moose-head Lake. 



maps, corresponds more exactly with the branching appearance 

 of a moose horn. " Its whole extent, from north to south, is about 

 forty miles, and varies in width from one to eight miles, and very 

 irregular in shape, owing to its deep coves, bays, and islands, 

 which in some parts almost fill the lake. Many of these islands 

 are mere ledges of slate, covered with a scanty growth of cedar 

 and fir, rising perpendicularly from the surface of the water, 

 which fall suddenly to a great depth by their sides. Others are 

 large islands of many acres, well wooded, and bordered by beach- 

 es of sand, as well as by ledges of rock. On the eastern side, a 

 few miles from the foot of the lake, rises a high rocky point, 

 called Burned Jacket. It is composed of gneiss, curiously crossed 

 in every direction by veins of quartz. Its sides are covered with 

 huge blocks of gneiss which have fallen from the top, forming 

 long dens and passages between them. On a small, low island, 

 northwest from Moose Island, I found the beach almost covered 

 with fine black ferruginous sand. It is the common black sand 



