KTAADN. 
17 
Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, 
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.” 
The next house was Fisk’s, ten miles from the Point, 
at the mouth of the East Branch, opposite to the island 
Nickatow, or the Forks, the last of the Indian islands. 
I am particular to give the names of the settlers and the 
distances, since every log-hut in these woods is a public 
house, and such information is of no little consequence 
to those who may have occasion to travel this way. Our 
course here crossed the Penobscot, and followed the 
southern bank. One of the party, who entered the 
house in search of some one to set us over, reported a 
very neat dwelling, with plenty of books, and a new 
wife, just imported from Boston, wholly new to the 
woods. We found the East Branch a large and rapid 
stream at its mouth, and much deeper than it appeared. 
Having with some difficulty discovered the trail again, 
we kept up the south side of the West Branch, or main 
river, passing by some rapids called Rock-Ebeeme, the 
roar of which we heard through the woods, and, shortly 
after, in the thickest of the wood, some empty loggers’ 
camps, still new, which were occupied the previous win¬ 
ter. Though we saw a few more afterwards, I will make 
one account serve for all. These were such houses as 
the lumberers of Maine spend the winter in, in the wil¬ 
derness. There were the camps and the hovels for the 
cattle, hardly distinguishable, except that the latter had 
no chimney. These camps were about twenty feet long 
by fifteen wide, built of logs, — hemlock, cedar, spruce, 
or yellow birch, — one kind alone, or all together, with 
the bark on; two or three large ones first, one directly 
above another, and notched together at the ends, to the 
height of three or four feet, then of smaller logs resting 
B 
