THE ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH. 
179 
tain along the edge of the precipice. But a smart shower 
coming up just then, the Indian crept under his canoe, 
while we, being protected by our rubber coats, proceeded 
to botanize. So we sent him back to the camp for shelter, 
agreeing that he should come there for us with his canoe 
toward night. It had rained a little in the forenoon, and 
we trusted that this would be the clearing-up shower, 
which it proved; but our feet and legs were thoroughly 
wet by the bushes. The clouds breaking away a little, 
we had a glorious wild view, as we ascended, of the 
broad lake with its fluctuating surface and numerous 
forest-clad islands, extending beyond our sight both north 
and south, and the boundless forest undulating away from 
its shores on every side, as densely packed as a rye-field, 
and enveloping nameless mountains in succession; but 
above all, looking westward over a large island was 
visible a very distant part of the lake, though we did not 
then suspect it to be Moosehead, — at first a mere broken 
white line seen through the tops of the island trees, like 
hay-caps, but spreading to a lake when we got higher. 
Beyond this we saw what appears to be called Bald 
Mountain on the map, some twenty-five miles distant, 
near the sources of the Penobscot. It was a perfect lake 
of the woods. But this was only a transient gleam, for 
the rain was not quite over. 
Looking southward, the heavens were completely over¬ 
cast, the mountains capped with clouds, and the lake 
generally wore a dark and stormy appearance, but from 
its surface just north of Sugar Island, six or eight miles 
distant, there was reflected upward to us through the 
misty air a bright blue tinge from the distant unseen sky 
of another latitude beyond. They probably had a clear 
sky then at Greenville, the south end of the lake. Stand- 
