Penobscot Bay, Maine
1896 
June 20
(No 2)
slopes and rises. Most of these openings appear to be due to the
pressure of ledges which although composed of a very rough stone
are yet singularly smooth and level in respect to their general
surfaces there being few points or projections and still fewer crevices
or seams to make the footing difficult or treacherous. Ferns of
various kinds, dwarf cornel and Linnaea (both in full bloom and
many other low-growing, northern plants are common enough in
these woods but nowhere do they occur so generally and in such
profusion as in the more inland forests the surface of the 
ground being covered nearly everywhere with a smooth and
perfectly unbroken carpet of mosses - green, velvety mosses
(Hypnum etc.) under the trees, the brittle, pale greenish-gray
reindeer moss in the openings and over the exposed ledges.
The contrast of color between the moss carpet beneath the trees
and that in the openings is very striking and effective.
On the whole our woods (50 acres or more in extent) are
among the most attractive that I have ever seen. They have
great variety being wild & tangled or matted in places, in others
very open beneath the trees. The sunny openings already mentioned
are rich in park effects which would - or at least should -
excite the despair and envy of an Olmstead or an Elliot. This is
due partly to the way the trees are scattered or grouped around
and in the openings, partly to the huge gray boulders half
hidden by the foliage & partly to the fact that many of
the isolated white spruces and not a few of the Balsams have
been trimmed into shapes closely resembling those of the clipped
evergreens one sees in our cemeteries & other cultivated grounds.
On first examining one of these trees - a white spruce about 6 ft. [feet]
high by as [delete]many[/delete] much in breadth with perfectly rounded outlines
and nowhere a single projecting point or twig [.] I found it 
difficult to believe our host's assurance that Rabbits & Cattle on