92 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
to identify himself with that class. He was the only 
one of the party who possessed an India-rubber jacket. 
The top strip or edge of his canoe was worn nearly 
through by friction on the stage. 
At eight o’clock the steamer, with her bell and whistle, 
scaring the moose, summoned us on board. She was a 
well-appointed little boat, commanded by a gentlemanly 
captain, with patent life-seats and metallic life-boat, and 
dinner on board, if you wish. She is chiefly used by 
lumberers for the transportation of themselves, their 
boats, and supplies, but also by hunters and tourists. 
There was another steamer, named Amphitrite, laid up 
close by ; but, apparently, her name was not more trite 
than her hull. There were also two or three large sail¬ 
boats in port. These beginnings of commerce on a 
lake in the wilderness are very interesting, — these 
larger white birds that come to keep company with the 
gulls. There were but few passengers, and not one 
female among them: a St. Francis Indian, with his 
canoe and moose-hides, two explorers for lumber, three 
men who landed at Sandbar Island, and a gentleman 
who lives on Deer Island, eleven miles up the lake, 
and owns also Sugar Island, between which and the 
former the steamer runs; these, I think, were all be¬ 
side ourselves. In the saloon was some kind of musical 
instrument, cherubim, or seraphim, to soothe the angry 
waves; and there, very properly, was tacked up the 
map of the public lands of Maine and Massachusetts, 
a copy of which I had in my pocket. 
The heavy rain confining us to the saloon awhile, I 
discoursed with the proprietor of Sugar Island on the 
condition of the world in Old Testament times. But 
at length, leaving this subject as fresh as we found it, 
