730 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 7, 191a. 
we were disappointed; as, although we found 
several large beds of vines, we could not get a 
handful of berries. Even the few tree-cran¬ 
berry bushes ( Viburnum ) we found had been 
stripped by birds. 
We had some thirty large double-springed 
steel traps and two bear traps. All o'ur traps 
were hand made, the bear traps especially light 
and strong, the springs made from saw-plate 
and the chains from scythe webs. These traps 
were made by David Bryant, of Oldtown, him¬ 
self a noted bear hunter, and though weighing 
not over ten pounds, could hold better than the 
most of such as weighed from twenty to forty 
pounds. 
In stepping on a slippery skid, when loaded, I 
got a fall which stopped my watch, and as my 
partner had none, for eight weeks we knew the 
time of day only by guess. 
We camped at night at the foot of Caucom- 
gomoc Lake. This lake is eight miles long and 
about two wide at its lower end and one mile 
at its upper. It is about 950 feet above sea level. 
On the west side there are ranges of high hdls 
running the whole length of the lake and other 
ranges behind them. The east side is lower, 
though there are some high lands back from the 
lake. Toward the head of the lake are several 
small rocky islands, some with pines, apparently 
aged, but dwarfed by wind and storms. The 
most of these had been boxed deeply foi 4 pitch 
by the long narrow hatchets which the Canada 
Indians formerly used. 
It rained at night, but the next day we went 
up the Caucomgomocsis, or Little Caucomgomoc, 
which hereafter for brevity will be called “the 
Sis.” Caucomgomoc means Gull Place (Gull 
Lake), and Sis is Penobscot Indian for little. 
Many herring gulls nest here on the islands and 
ledges, and in August I have seen Bonaparte s 
gulls and arctic terns, which were probably bred 
here. 
For three miles from the lake the Sis is a 
wide, shallow stream wkh little current and oc¬ 
casional deep pools; then comes Round Pond, 
about a mile each way, with an inlet on the 
northwest, and the Sis coming in on the same 
side as it goes out. A mile further up the Sis 
is Daggett Pond. The stream being wide and 
shallow at the outlet, it is a favorite feeding 
ground for moose. Daggett Pond has large 
bays on both sides at the lower end and is about 
a mile by a mile and a half. It receives Shal¬ 
low Lake Stream at the eastern end. 
Returning, I shot a partridge from the canoe. 
There was a barrel half full of salt meat left 
by the river drivers. We took some of this and 
set a trap for bears between the Sis and the 
lake. We camped in the same place as the night 
before. The spring before a drive of three mil¬ 
lions of pine logs was abandoned here, as they 
had jammed the whole length of the Horse 
Race. Many acres of them lay at the outlet, 
many grounded where the receding water had 
left them, and many rods wide of floating ones 
outside of those, so that to get out on the lake, 
canoes and loads must be carried at least 100 
yards over the logs, half of which were afloat 
and rolling about. 
“Sept. 14. Though 4 he weather looked bad, we 
began early to carry our stuff to the outer edge 
of the logs. In loading, one mail had to hold 
the canoe, while the other put in the load, as 
the sea was rising and the logs acting lively. 
After getting loaded, it was some two miles 
diagonally across the lake to get under the shel¬ 
ter of the high lands. It began to rain as we 
started and the sea increased to a heavy white- 
capped swell, and we had to quarter so much 
that it must have been two hours, or at least 
four miles, before, we made the land. Long be¬ 
fore this the rain changed to snow, and it 
snowed so fast that we often lost sight of each 
other. But at last we got together under the 
lee of the land and kept company until, on com¬ 
ing to the leeward of the first island at the 
head of the lake, we smelled smoke. It was the 
smell of burning muck rather than a wood fire. 
Philbrook suggested Indians, and as I was more 
used to them, it was decided that I should land. 
I landed in the smoke which lay over the water, 
and in order not to surprise them, said, “Queh?” 
(“How do you do?”), but getting no answer ad¬ 
vanced, only to find a fire burning deep in the 
mucky soil, probably left weeks before by St. 
Francis Indians, who camped here to get rid of 
mosquitoes while hunting moose.” 
As the snow still continued and as we thought 
we must be near the head of the lake, we landed 
and pitched our tent to get dinner. We were as 
wet as drowned muskrats, but our things were 
kept dry by the tent and a rubber poncho spread 
over them. Just at night it cleared off, leaving 
an inch or two of snow. 
We found that we were about a half mile 
from the head of the lake, and on looking round 
discovered quite near us as good a chance to 
build our camp as we were likely to find. There 
was a fairly level spot about twenty yards from 
the lake, with a mixed growth of spruce, maple 
and beech rising behind and a high hill just 
back of that. We could have our camp timber 
and fire wood up hill of us, and although rather 
a risky place to build on account of the danger 
of the camp’s smoking, we concluded to try it. 
Sept. 15 we began to build a camp to be four¬ 
teen feet by ten inside. We worked steadily 
for three days. Our tools were axes, a draw- 
shave and a small auger. We built a half-pitch 
camp, about ten feet high in center, five feet 
at one side and running down to two feet at 
tjie head of the berth. Our berth was six feet 
each way, with timber at the side and deacon 
seat in front; then four feet for fireplace, leav¬ 
ing four feet behind for wood, etc. This left 
four feet between the side of the berth and the 
wall where we stowed our barrel of hard bread 
and another barrel wherein was our flour and 
sugar. Above we made wide shelves by boring 
and driving in supports for them. We dug a 
hole for .our potatoes to keep them from freez¬ 
ing. Our camp was covered with four-foot 
white cedar splits, and our berth was ceiled up 
at the sides and overhead with smooth shaved 
cedar. Where our fire was to be we dug up 
every particle of moss and scurf, down to hard 
clay, and carried it away; and then, after digging 
a trench about a foot square through the center 
out to the open air and lining and covering it 
with flat rocks to try to give a draft, we brought 
in gravel and pounded it down for a fire bed. 
The rest of the camp outside the fireplace was 
floored with split fir, smoothed with an axe. 
Over the fireplace we built up a smoke hole 
or log chimney. This we made of spruce sticks 
about six inches in diameter. We first notched 
them and fitted them together and then marked 
them, and one handed them up while the other 
placed them. Afterward, to make it carry smoke 
better, we nailed square sticks in the corners 
so as to project some four feet above, and by 
nailing on wide splits, increased the height of 
our chimney. Also, afterward, we put on a set 
of rib-poles outside the other roof and put on 
a second roof of splits, leaving a six-inch air 
space, so that it would not smoke when covered 
with snow. See Fig. 1. 
We made a nice door with a good latch. 
Lastly we gathered soft moss, and with blunt 
wedges, chinked every crack. One who has 
never tried it would not believe how many 
bushels of moss it takes to chink a camp. 
At Daggett Pond, some fourteen miles from 
our camp, are rocks which the frost has broken 
with straight cleavage, so that one can get them 
from two to six feet long and from six to fif¬ 
teen inches square, as smooth on the sides as if 
hammered. The first time we went there we 
got two of the right size and length for side 
rocks, or hand-irons, and one some three feet 
long, two feet high and six inches thick for a 
back, and carried them home. This last was 
so heavy that it was a load for us both when 
carried on a hand barrow up from the canoe. 
We found that our draft was perfect and our 
camp never smoked once, no matter how wind 
or weather was outside. We made a nice bed 
of fir boughs, and I have never felt so rich and 
perfectly satisfied as after we moved in and had 
everything arranged. 
For cooking tools I had a ten-quart pail for 
water, into which were nested deep tin plates 
made to fit, a four-quart pan for bread making, 
or to serve stew in, a four-quart pail of Russia 
iron, made largest at the top, with riveted iron 
ears, a two-quart tin pail to nest inside, three 
pint dippers with straight handles made to fit 
each other. There was room at the sides for 
forks, knives and spoons, and on the cover and 
on each side of the largest pail itself was a 
loop through which ran a piece of cod line so 
that when packed the pail could be tied fast and 
even rolled down hill without spilling out the 
contents. I also had a long-handled frying-pan 
and a folding baker which could be set up or 
packed flat in a moment’s time. At that date 
the very useful wire broiler had not been in¬ 
vented. 
Rufus also had for his private use when out 
on lines of traps a two-quart Russia iron kettle 
and one holding a quart, with a dipper inside. 
As Rufus could handle flour better than I could, 
he made all the bread, doughnuts and fritters, 
while I did all the meat and potato cooking. 
In getting our timber for camp building into 
place, we had, after cutting it to proper lengths, 
to peel it on one side, then to cross-stake down 
smooth skids of beech and cross-lift a foot or 
two at a time, some of the logs having to be 
brought in this way over one hundred feet. In 
rolling up the logs on skids one rolled back on 
me and sprained my right wrist so that I could 
hardly use it. I had seen the Indians use cat- 
spruce pitch as a plaster in case of sprains, and 
although there was no cat-spruce to be had I 
pounded up a lot of spruce chewing gum, and 
making a bandage of cotton cloth some three 
feet long, I melted the fine gum on it and wound 
it around my wrist, sprinkling on more and melt¬ 
ing it till it showed through the cloth, until I 
had on several thicknesses. Then I wound the 
rest of the cloth around my wrist and Rufus 
