SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT. 



5 



islands, is the first of a succession of bays, thoroughfares, and reaches 

 which line the coast almost unceasingly to Quoddy. The mainland 

 becomes lost behind a maze of rock-bound islands; the salt water pene- 

 trates by deep and narrow channels into the very w^oods, ebbs and flows 

 in and out of hundreds of lonely, unfrequented harbors, discovers count- 

 less hidden nooks and coves. Sand beaches become rare, and great and 

 small "Sea Walls " of rounded stones or pebbles take their place. Except 

 at Mount Desert, great cliffs occur but seldom until Grand Manan is 

 reached, while mountains come down only to the open sea at Mount 

 Desert ; but the variety of lesser topographic forms is great. 



The general aspect of the coast is wild and untamable, an effect due 

 partly to its own rocky character and storm-swept ledges, but yet more 

 to the changed character of the coastal vegetation. Beyond Cape Eliza- 

 beth capes and islands are wooded, if at all, with the dark, stiff cresting of 

 spruce and fir, interspersed perhaps with pine and fringed by birch and 



Copyright by National Geographic Society. 



View of Frenchmans Bay and the Gouldsborough Hills from a mountain trail in the 



National Monument. 



mountain ash. One by one familiar species disappear as the coast is 

 traversed eastward, and northern forms replace them. The red pine 

 first appears on Massachusetts Bay, the gray pine at Mount Desert; the 

 Arbor- vitae is first met with near Kennebec ; the balsam fir and the black 

 and white spruces show themselves nowhere to the south of Cape Ann, 

 nor do they abound until Cape Elizabeth is passed. It is these somber 

 coniferous woods crowding to the water's edge along the rugged shore 

 which give the traveler his strong impression of a wild sub-arctic land 

 v/here strange Indian names — Pemaquid, Megunticook, Eggemoggin, or 

 Schoodic — are altogether fitting. 



The human story of the coast of Maine is almost as picturesque and 

 varied as its scenery. This coast was first explored by Samuel de Cham- 

 plain, whose narrative of his adventure is still delightful reading. Fruit- 



81507°— 17 2 



