THE ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH. 
217 
we were bound. The Indian said that this was the 
wettest carry in the State, and as the season was a very 
wet one, we anticipated an unpleasant walk. As usual 
he made one large bundle of the pork-keg, cooking uten¬ 
sils, and other loose traps, by tying them up in his blan¬ 
ket. We should be obliged to go over the carry twice, 
and our method was to carry one half part way, and 
then go back for the rest. 
Our path ran close by the door of a log-hut in a clear¬ 
ing at this end of the carry, which the Indian, who alone 
entered it, found to be occupied by a Canadian and his 
family, and that the man had been blind for a year. He 
seemed peculiarly unfortunate to be taken blind there, 
where there were so few eyes to see for him. He could 
not even be led out of that country by a dog, but must 
be taken down the rapids as passively as a barrel of 
flour. This was the first house above Chesuncook, and 
the last on the Penobscot waters, and was built here, no 
doubt, because it was the route of the lumberers in the 
winter and spring. 
After a slight ascent from the lake through the springy 
soil of the Canadian’s clearing, we entered on a level and 
very wet and rocky path through the universal dense 
evergreen forest, a loosely paved gutter merely, where 
we went leaping from rock to rock and from side to side, 
in the vain attempt to keep out of the water and mud. 
We concluded that it was yet Penobscot water, though 
there was no flow to it. It was on this carry that the 
white hunter whom I met in the stage, as he told me, 
had shot two bears a few months before. They stood 
directly in the path, and did not turn out for him. They 
might be excused for not turning out there, or only tak¬ 
ing the right as the law directs. He said that at this 
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