282 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
of a much travelled man, as from a long journey, with 
adventures to relate, though you may have heard the 
crackling of the tire all the while, -— and at a hundred 
rods you might be lost past recovery, and have to camp 
out. It is all mossy and moosey . In some of those dense 
fir and spruce woods there is hardly room for the smoke 
to go up. The trees are a standing night, and every fir 
and spruce which you fell is a plume plucked from night’s 
raven wing. Then at night the general stillness is more 
impressive than any sound, but occasionally you hear 
the note of an owl farther or nearer in the woods, and 
if near a lake, the semi-human cry of the loons at their 
unearthly revels. 
To-night the Indian lay between the fire and his 
stretched moose-hide, to avoid the mosquitoes. Indeed, 
he also made a small smoky fire of damp leaves at his 
head and his feet, and then as usual rolled up his head 
in his blanket. We with our veils and our wash were 
tolerably comfortable, but it would be difficult to pursue 
any sedentary occupation in the woods at this season: 
you cannot see to read much by the light of a fire through 
a veil in the evening, nor handle pencil and paper well 
with gloves or anointed fingers. 
On the mainland were Norway pines, indicating a 
new geological formation, and it was such a dry and 
sandy soil as we had not noticed before. 
As we approached the mouth of the East Branch, we 
passed two or three huts, the first sign of civilization 
after Hunt’s, though we saw no road as yet; we heard a 
cow-bell, and even saw an infant held up to a small 
square window to see us pass, but apparently the infant 
and the ritbther that held it were the only inhabitants 
then at home for several miles. This took the wind out 
