2 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
the glorious river and lake scenery, and have no experi¬ 
ence of the batteau and the boatman’s life. I was fortu¬ 
nate also in the season of the year, for in the summer 
myriads of black flies, mosquitoes, and midges, or, as 
the Indians call them, “ no-see-ems,” make travelling in 
the woods almost impossible; but now their reign was 
nearly over. 
Ktaadn, whose name is an Indian word signifying 
highest land, was first ascended by white men in 1804. 
It was visited by Professor J. W. Bailey of West Point 
in 1886; by Dr. Charles T. Jackson, the State Geolo¬ 
gist, in 1837 ; and by two young men from Boston in 
1845. All these have given accounts of their expedi¬ 
tions. Since I was there, two or three other parties 
have made the excursion, and told their stories. Besides 
these, very few, even among backwoodsmen and hunters, 
have ever climbed it, and it will be a long time before 
the tide of fashionable travel sets that way. The moun¬ 
tainous region of the State of Maine stretches from near 
the White Mountains, northeasterly one hundred and 
sixty miles, to the head of the Aroostook River, and is 
about sixty miles wide. The wild or unsettled portion 
is far more extensive. So that some hours only of travel 
in this direction will carry the curious to the verge of 
a primitive forest, more interesting, perhaps, on all ac¬ 
counts, than they would reach by going a thousand miles 
* 
westward. 
The next forenoon, Tuesday, September 1st, I started 
with my companion in a buggy from Bangor for “ up 
river,” expecting to be overtaken the next day night at 
Mattawamkeag Point, some sixty miles off, by two more 
Bangoreans, who had decided to join us in a trip to the 
mountain. We had each a knapsack or bag filled with 
