28 Account of an Excursion to Mount Katahdin. 



of the mountain we observed an appearance indicating horizontal 

 terraces. 



After taking the annexed sketch, and examining the plants near 

 the shore, among which I found Potentilla fruticosa growing abun- 

 dantly, we continued our route and soon arrived at the Pockwock- 

 amus Falls, which presented a very wild and picturesque scene. It 

 is an immense collection of fragments of granite, rounded and pol- 

 ished by the action of the current, which in many places has, by the 

 attrition of the gravel and pebbles, worn circular cavities in the rocks. 



Upon the rocks are piled, in wild confusion, a great quantity of 

 logs, which have formed at these falls a "ja??z," which the loggers 

 had not been able to loosen. We noticed several places where the 

 rocks had been blasted to liberate the lumber. It was vtith much 

 labor that we transported our baggage over these rocks, while our 

 boatmen forced the empty boat up the falls. The next falls we ar- 

 rived at are called Abawljacarmegas, where a fine ledge of granite 

 of the best quality is well exposed In the bed of the river. 



We arrived early in the afternoon at Hoyt's stream, where we 

 hauled our boat on shore, turned her over, and deposited under the 

 bottom the greater part of our provisions, our gun, frying pan, extra 

 clothing, &;c. ; then, having u^ade up our packs with one blanket 

 each, and a short allowance of provisions for two days, we proceed- 

 ed on foot for the mountain, from whose base we estimated our dis- 

 tance to be about three miles. Our guides were now upon ground 

 entirely new to them, neither of them having ever ascended the 

 the mountain. We directed our course tov.'ards the slide marked 

 (A) in the drawing. Having no path to direct us, we found our 

 journey exceedingly difficult. The first part of our way was over 

 a ridge where the woods had been burned ; here our principal an- 

 noyance was caused by a very small black fly, which our guides 

 called "minges,'' and to which the Indians give the appropriate 

 name of " No-see-'' ems." After leaving the ''' burnt woods," we 

 descended into a dense cedar swamp, from which we extricated our- 

 selves with much labor, and then soon struck upon a rapid mountain 

 brook, which for the purity and transparency of its water, surpassed 

 all I had ever beheld. We followed this stream a while, but finding 

 that it was leading us from our course we left it and turned to the 

 west, by doing which we soon arrived at the slide. Here a scene of 

 wild confusion presented itself; masses of granite, shivered by their 

 fall from above, lay scattered over the path of the slide ; all traces of 



