THE ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH. 
261 
the edge of the stream, which was quite five feet in 
diameter at the but. Probably its size detained it. 
Shortly after this, I overtook the Indian at the edge of 
some burnt land, which extended three or four miles at 
least, beginning about three miles above Second Lake, 
which we were expecting to reach that night, and which 
is about ten miles from Telos Lake. This burnt region 
was still more rocky than before, but, though compara¬ 
tively open, we could not yet see the lake. Not having 
seen my companion for some time, I climbed, with the 
Indian, a singular high rock on the edge of the river, 
forming a narrow ridge only a foot or two wide at top, in 
order to look for him; and after calling many times, I at 
length heard him answer from a considerable distance in¬ 
land, he having taken a trail which led off from the river, 
perhaps directly to the lake, and was now in search of the 
river again. Seeing a much higher rock, of the same 
character, about one third of a mile farther east, or down 
stream, I proceeded toward it, through the burnt land, in 
order to look for the lake from its summit, supposing that 
the Indian would keep down the stream in his canoe, and 
hallooing all the while that my companion might join me 
on the way. Before we came together, I noticed where 
a moose, which possibly I had scared by my shouting, 
had apparently just run along a large rotten trunk of a 
pine, which made a bridge, thirty or forty feet long, over 
a hollow, as convenient for him as for me. The tracks 
were as large as those of an ox, but an ox could not have 
crossed there. This burnt land was an exceedingly wild 
and desolate region. Judging by the weeds and sprouts, 
it appeared to have been burnt about two years before. 
It was covered with charred trunks, either prostrate or 
standing, which crocked our clothes and hands, and we 
