26 Account of an Excursion to Mount Katahdin. 



the rocks to fish, the rest prepared for our night camp. Mr. Barnes 

 and myself collected for our couch the fragrant boughs of the cedar, 

 (Thuja occidentalis,) while our guides cut down bushes and pulled 

 up their roots from the spot selected for an encampment. Our friend 

 Cyrus in a few minutes chopped down a mighty hemlock, which fell 

 with a tremendous crash ; its trunk was to serve for our back log, 

 against which we soon had a fine blazing fire. Four stakes support- 

 ing cross pieces, over which were thrown a couple of blankets fas- 

 tened together by wooden pegs, formed a very comfortable tent, 

 under which we spread a soft carpet of twigs. 



Mr. Keely appeared presently with a fine mess of white perch and 

 chub, which when fried, furnished us a delicious meal. The stump 

 of the hemlock served as our table and the clean chips as plates. 

 The whole scene formed a picture worthy of the pencil of Weir. 

 During the night it rained hard, but our blankets proved sufficient 

 protection. After a good night's rest we went forward again the 

 next morning, (Friday,) having first caught and cooked for our break- 

 fast another fine mess of fish. 



At all the falls which we had passed since leaving Grand Falls, 

 we found the rocks to be loose boulders of granite ; but this morning 

 we observed just below Debskoneegan Falls a large ledge of granite 

 in situ. This is the most southern point where we had an opportu- 

 nity of seeing it in situ during this journey. At these falls we were 

 obliged to carry our boat a distance of about ninety eight rods, when 

 we again launched her. 



From Debskoneegan Lake the view of Katahdin is very fine. I 

 have attempted in the accompanying sketch to give some idea of its 

 outline. (See the fig.) The mountain on the right is Katahdin ; (A) 

 the large western slide, and (B) the eastern. The mountain on the 

 extreme left is Sugar Loaf; it bears a striking resemblance to a vol- 

 canic mountain, of which the remarkable depression in its summit 

 represents the crater. We were unable to determine whether this 

 apparent hollowing out of the summit was real, or an optical decep- 

 tion produced by the receding ridge. Between the two principal slides 

 (A) and (B), the chief growth upon the mountain appeared to be 

 very low deciduous trees. These we afterwards found to be white 

 birch, {Betula populifolia.) The eastern and western extremities 

 of the mountain beyond the above mentioned slides, presented the 

 dark green color of the evergreen pines and furs. The summit and 

 ■ a considerable space below, bare of vegetation. On the lower part' 



