108 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
are from six to ten feet high, but once or twice rise 
gently to higher ground. In many places the forest on 
the bank was but a thin strip, letting the light through 
from some alder-swamp or meadow behind. The con¬ 
spicuous berry-bearing bushes and trees along the shore 
were the red osier, with its whitish fruit, hobble-bush, 
mountain-ash, tree-cranberry, choke-cherry, now ripe, 
alternate cornel, and naked viburnum. Following Joe’s 
example, I ate the fruit of the last, and also of the hob¬ 
ble-bush, but found them rather insipid and seedy. I 
looked very narrowly at the vegetation, as we glided 
along close to the shore, and frequently made Joe turn 
aside for me to pluck a plant, that I might see by com¬ 
parison what was primitive about my native river. 
Horehound, horsemint, and the sensitive fern grew close 
to the edge, under the willows and alders, and wool- 
grass on the islands, as along the Assabet Fiver in Con¬ 
cord. It was too late for flowers, except a few asters, 
golden-rods, etc. In several places we noticed the slight 
frame of a camp, such as we had prepared to set up, 
amid the forest by the river-side, where some lumberers 
or hunters had passed a night, — and sometimes steps 
cut in the muddy or clayey bank in front of it. 
We stopped to fish for trout at the mouth of a small 
stream called Ragmuff, which came in from the west, 
about two miles below the Moosehorn. Here were the 
ruins of an old lumbering-camp, and a small space, 
which had formerly been cleared and burned over, was 
now densely overgrown with the red cherry and rasp¬ 
berries. While we were trying for trout, Joe, Indian- 
like, wandered off up the Ragmuff on his own errands, 
and when we were ready to start was far beyond call. 
So we were compelled to make a fire and get our din- 
