190 BULLETIN OF THE 



As almost nothing definite is on record respecting the depths of the 

 lakes that cover so large a portion of Northern Maine and British Amer- 

 ica, soundings as numerous as circumstances permitted were made of the 

 lakes traversed. And though the Geological Reports represent the lakes 

 above named — except the first, of which no account has appeared in 

 print — as enclosed by shores made up of loose material, it was thought 

 best, in consideration of the remarkably low stage of water then pi-evail- 

 ing, to re-examine the shores and beds of the lakes in regard to their 

 composition. The same course was adopted for the Penobscot River, 

 especially at the five falls and portages that intervene between Ambe- 

 jijis Lake and Aboljacarmegus Stream. 



The Lakes. 



Schoodic* Lake, which shares its name with the larger Schoodic lakes 

 that lie on the eastern border of Maine, is in some respects the most 

 interesting of all that occur in this region. In his " Water Power of 

 Maine," Wells gives its area as sixteen square miles, and it is said to 

 have a length of ten miles, and in its central part to be two and a half 

 miles wide. It is free from islands, except at a single point upon the 

 eastern shore ; and the forest that surrounds it shows no break in its 

 continuity, nor any other sign of settlement. The absence of islands 

 from the main body of the lake indicated deep water ; but the rough 

 condition of the surfiice, when we boated over it, prevented us from try- 

 ing the depth. Our guide, Mr. Clapp, was employed to sound the lake 

 on his return, and the list of his numerous and careful soundings shows 

 it to be by far the deepest of all the lakes througli which our route lay. 

 The part over which we passed is enclosed by shores of granitic detritus, 

 and there was nowhere to be seen any outcrop of the slates that under- 

 lie the whole surrounding district. 



From the Schoodic to the Middle Joe Merry, our way was along a log- 

 ger's road through continuous forest, which occupies a land surface very 

 level and entirely drift-covered, not one exposure of ledge being observed 

 in the whole distance of fifteen miles. Since our course through the 

 series of lakes will be apparent from inspection of the accompanying 

 map, no more need be said of it than that, favored in general by ab- 

 sence of wind, which, in a brief space of time, raises on these lakes a sea 



* The name as applied to this lake is probably a refinement upon an earlier one, 

 found on the older maps, that of Skootum Pond, itself perhaps the corruption of 

 some now unknown Indian name. 



