CHAP. III.] THE KENNEBEC. 43 



power of steam. Many of these merchantmen are destined for 

 New York, where the unusual heat and drought of the summer 

 has caused a scanty crop of grass, but hundreds are bound to the 

 distant ports of Mobile and New Orleans ; so that the horses of 

 Alabama and Louisiana are made to graze on the sweet pastures 

 of Maine, instead of the coarser and ranker herbage of the south 

 ern prairies. In a few months these northern-built ships will 

 bring back bales of cotton for factories newly established by Bos 

 ton capitalists, and worked on this river both by water power 

 and steam. Such are the happy consequences of the annexation 

 of Louisiana to the United States. But for that event, the fa 

 vorite theories of political economy in New England, and the duty 

 of protecting native industry, would have interposed many a 

 custom-house and high tariff bet\v r een Maine and the valley of 

 the Mississippi. 



As we passed Bath a large eagle, with black wings and a 

 white body, was seen soaring over our heads ; and, a few miles 

 above, where the salt and fresh water meet, seals were seen 

 sporting close to the steamer. The Kermebec is said to abound 

 in salmon. We admired the great variety of trees on its banks ; 

 two kinds of birch with larger leaves than our British species, 

 several oaks arid pines, the hemlock with foliage like a yew-tree, 

 and the silver-fir, and two species of maple, the sugar or rock 

 maple (Acer saccharinuni), and the white (A. dasycarpum), 

 both of which yield sugar. To these two trees the beauty and 

 brilliancy of the autumnal tints of the American forests are due, 

 the rock maple turning red, purple and scarlet, and the white, 

 first yellow, and then red. 



We were conveyed in the Huntress to Gardiner, the head of 

 steam- boat navigation here, sixty-eight miles distant from Port 

 land, where we visited the country house of Mr. Gardiner, whose 

 family gave its name to the settlement. It is built in the style 

 of an English country seat, and surrounded by a park. At Mr. 

 Allen s I examined, with much interest, a collection of fossil 

 shells and Crustacea, made by Mrs. Allen from the drift or &quot; gla 

 cial&quot; deposits of the same age as those of Portsmouth, already 

 described. Among other remains I recognized the tooth of a 



