36 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
table-land between the States and Canada, the northern 
side of which is drained by the St. John and Chaudiere, 
the southern by the Penobscot and Kennebec. There 
was no bold mountainous shore, as we might have ex¬ 
pected, but only isolated hills and mountains rising here 
and there from the plateau. The country is an archi¬ 
pelago of lakes, — the lake-country of New England. 
Their levels vary but a few feet, and the boatmen, by 
short portages, or by none at all, pass easily from one to 
another. They say that at very high water the Penob¬ 
scot and the Kennebec flow into each other, or at any 
rate, that you may lie with your face in the one and 
your toes in the other. Even the Penobscot and St. 
John have been connected by a canal, so that the lumber 
of the Allegash, instead of going down the St. John, 
comes down the Penobscot; and the Indian’s tradition, 
that the Penobscot once ran both ways for his conven¬ 
ience, is, in one sense, partially realized to-day. 
None of our party but McCauslin had been above this 
lake, so we trusted to him to pilot us, and we could not 
but confess the importance of a pilot on these waters. 
While it is river, you will not easily forget which way is 
up stream; but when you enter a lake, the river is com¬ 
pletely lost, and you scan the distant shores in vain to 
find where it comes in. A stranger is, for the time at 
least, lost, and must set about a voyage of discovery first 
of all to find the river. To follow the windings of the 
shore when the lake is ten miles, or even more, in length, 
and of an irregularity which will not soon be mapped, is 
a wearisome voyage, and will spend his time and his 
provisions. They tell a story of a gang of experienced 
woodmen sent to a location on this stream, who were 
thus lost in the wilderness of lakes. They cut their way 
