"'At this time,' says our guide, 'we fell into much confusion on

account of two of the company who were missing, the gunner and Mr.

Meservey, for whom we made search, but in vain. Few can imagine our

feelings save those who have heard the cry of _lost_ coming up

from the deep gloom of the wilderness in the native tone of some

wanderer calling for help. After consultation, it was resolved that we

must leave the ground for home, hoping for the best. We left at one,

and came to the lake at four P.M., and here, to our great joy, we saw

a smoke on the opposite side, near the outlet, and at five rejoined

our missing companions. They had caught trout enough for us all,

weighing from one to three pounds. With these, and cranberry-sauce in

plenty, also bread, pork, and tea, we made merry around a cheerful

fire. That night, however, a storm of rain coming up, found us poorly

prepared.'

"In this connection an incident may be related. Just before our

arrival, while the gunner was fishing, suddenly two moose bounded

furiously into the lake, and appeared to be swimming toward him.

Though all along desirous of an interview, their visit was rather too

startling. He scampered with all haste to the shore, seized his gun

and fired, but the balls would not go through the '_law_,' which

at that season afforded protection, and so the moose escaped.

[Illustration: NORTHEAST VIEW OF MOUNT KTAADN, FROM THE WEST BRANCH

OF THE PENOBSCOT.]

"The night just referred to was a time of _realities_. Truth proved

'stranger than fiction.' Amid anxiety for the lost, the ax had been

left on the mountain. A pile of logs lay near the outlet of the lake.

With some of these our missing companions had made a fire; some formed

the floor of the camp, and others, used as rafters, were covered with

boughs for protection, but not from rain. On the above floor (the spot

allowing no other), no boughs at hand could make a downy bed. Every one

found out that he was composed of flesh and bones. It also became

difficult to regulate the fire, so that the heat was often intense.

Contrary winds would ever and anon drive the smoke into the camp, and

thus cause great involuntary weeping. The scene was _felt_, and

few could find sleep without stealing it. It was visible darkness all

around. Toward midnight the rain commenced. One of the party, writing

to another from Lincoln in December, says, 'Old Mount Ktaadn from this

place looks dreary enough. Its snow-capped top often reminds me of our

amusing adventures; but nothing in all our travels affords more

amusement in moments of meditation than the night on the Pond Dam. That

old plaid cloak, dripping in the rain; its occupant upon a log without

the camp, singing "The morning light is breaking," when it was only one

o'clock; and then again, "He shall come down like rain," &c.--all

together have left an impression on my mind not soon to be effaced.'

"The occupant of that 'cloak,' unable to sleep, conversed with the

'daughters of music,' and was prompted to sing the night out and the

morning in; and as the rain increased, the whole crew joined heartily

in the chorus. Our departure from such lodgings was very early.

Beneath continual droppings from the trees and bushes, we pressed

through an obstinate path-way, and arrived at the Wassataquoik camp at

half past nine. This march was really toilsome, but brought us out at

the desired point. After a long rest, we followed the old supply road

most of the way, forded the Wassataquoik, and came out opposite Mr.

Hunt's, whence the bateaux took us across the East Branch. This was a

little past four o'clock P.M. Our appearance was far from beardless,

our 'externals' somewhat ragged and torn, and our appetites keen as a

'Damascus razor.' 'Mine host' and family received us most cordially,

having felt some anxiety in our absence. They made us joyful around a

full table of good things. On the day following, Wednesday, we passed

to Mr. Cushman's, and on Thursday took conveyances for home."

Another visitor[14] to this point of attraction observes:

"While I was engaged in noting the bearings of this mountain, the

clouds suddenly darted down upon its summit and concealed it from

view, while we could observe that a violent snow-squall was paying

homage to Pomola, the demon of the mountain, Presently the storm

ceased, and the clouds, having thus paid their tribute, passed on, and

left the mountain white with snow. This took place on the 20th of

September.

[14] Dr. Jackson.

"Crossing the lake--'Millnoket, a most beautiful sheet of water,

containing a great number of small islands, from which circumstance it

takes its name'--we reached the carrying-place at the head of a long

creek, where we pitched our camp amid a few poplar-trees, which were

of second growth, or have sprung up since the forests were burned. The

want of good fuel and of boughs for a bed was severely felt, since we

were obliged to repose on naked rocks, and the green poplar-trees

appeared to give more smoke than fire. The night was cold and the wind

violent, so that sleep was out of the question. Early in the morning

we prepared to carry our boats over to Ambijejis Lake, and the labor

was found very difficult, since the water was low, and we had to

traverse a long tract of boggy land before reaching the other lake.

"Tracks of moose and cariboo abound in the mud, since they frequent

the shallow parts of the lake, to feed upon the lilypads or the leaves

of the Nuphan lutea, which here abound. A noble-looking cariboo

suddenly started from the woods, and trotted quietly along the shores

of the lake quite near us, but we were not prepared to take him, and

he presently darted into the forest and disappeared.

"Our provisions having been reduced, owing to the circumstance that

our journey proved much longer than we had anticipated, I thought it

necessary to put the whole party on a regular allowance, which was

mutually agreed to. Our Indian, Neptune, succeeded in catching half a

dozen musquash, which we were glad to share with him, and a few trout

which were also taken, and served to save a portion of our more

substantial food. At Pock-wock-amus Falls, where the river rushes over

a ledge of granite, large trout are caught abundantly, and we stopped

a short time to obtain a supply. They are readily taken with a common

fishing-hook and line, baited with a piece of pork, or even with a

slip of paper, which is to be trailed over the surface of the water.

Some of the trout thus caught would weigh from three and a half to

four pounds.

"On the 22d of September we prepared ourselves for ascending the

mountain, taking with us our tent, a few cooking utensils, and all the

food remaining, except a small quantity of Indian corn meal, which we

concealed on the island for use on our return.

"Our party, all clothed in red flannel shirts, and loaded with our

various equipments, made a singular appearance as we landed on the

opposite shore and filed into the woods.

"Having reached a height where the forest trees were so diminutive

that we could not camp any higher up for want of fuel, we pitched our

tent. This place is about half way up the mountain. From it we have an

extensive view of the surrounding country.

"Leaving our camp on the mountain side, at seven A.M. we set out for

the summit of Ktaadn, traveling steadily up the slide, clambering over

loose bowlders of granite, trap, and graywacke, which are heaped up in

confusion along its course. We at length reached a place where it was

dangerous longer to walk on the loose rocks, and passing over to the

right-hand side, clambered up among the dwarfish bushes that cling to

the side of the mountain.

"Two of our party became discouraged on reaching this point, and there

being no necessity of their accompanying us, they were allowed to

return to camp. The remainder of our ascent was extremely difficult,

and required no small perseverance. Our Indian guide, Louis, placed

stones along the path, in order that we might more readily find the

way down the mountain, and the wisdom of this precaution was fully

manifested in the sequel. At ten A.M. we reached the table-land which

forms the mountain's top, and ascends gradually to the central peak.

Here the wind, and driving snow and hail, rendered it almost

impossible to proceed, but we at length reached the central peak. The

true altitude of Mount Ktaadn above the level of the sea is a little

more than one mile perpendicular elevation. It is, then, evidently the

highest point in the State of Maine, and is the most abrupt granite

mountain in New England.

"Amid a furious snow-storm, we set out on our return from this region

of clouds and snow. Louis declared that Pomola was angry with us for

presuming to measure the height of the mountain, and thus revenged

himself. 'Descending, we had nearly gone astray, and might have

descended on the wrong side, had it not been for the precautions of

Louis before named. Clouds and darkness hung upon the mountain's brow,

and the cold blasts almost deprived us of breath. Incrusted with snow,

we carefully slid upon the surface of the rocks.' 'We tumbled down

some large blocks of granite, that descended with a terrible fracas,

dashing the rocks into fragments as they bounded along.' 'Our party

encamped upon the mountain side, and passed a sleepless night, without

food, and amid a driving snow-storm.'

"Early next morning we struck our tent and descended the mountain, but

so enfeebled had we become by hunger, privations, and fatigue, that it

was with difficulty we could carry ourselves and burdens. Every now

and then our knees would give way beneath us, and cause us to fall

upon the ground. When we reached the base of the mountain, we

discovered some wild choke-cherries hanging in bunches from the trees,

which the bears had often climbed and broken for the fruit. Felling

one of these cherry-trees, we ate the astringent fruit, and were in

some measure resuscitated in strength, so as to march with renewed

vigor. A bed of blueberries also presented itself, and we stopped to

dine upon them. 'Proceeding on, we met two of our company, who had

passed down the night before, who had cooked all the Indian meal that

we left at our old camp on the island, and brought the cakes for our

relief. On our way down the river we fortunately met two young men

ascending the stream in a canoe on an exploring expedition, we induced

them to sell us twenty biscuits, which, being two to a man, on short

allowance, we hoped to be able to reach Nickatow. On our way down we

met another crew, who supplied us with the necessary rations to reach

Nickatow, where, on our arrival, we obtained all that was necessary

for the comfortable prosecution of our down-river journey.'"

In addition to the natural resources of the Penobscot for lumber,

several townships of good timber land, formerly claimed by the crown,

but by treaty ceded to the United States, have become available by

diverting a portion of the head waters of the St. John's River into

the channel of the former, on the west branch. This was effected by

cutting a canal from a lake on the St. John's, called Zelos, to

Webster Lake, on the Penobscot.

Originally the canal was three hundred rods long by four wide, and

four feet deep; but the strong current of water flowing through, at

the rate of one mile in twenty minutes, has changed the regularity of

the channel to a more natural and stream-like appearance.

By this bit of Yankee enterprise, the timber of eight townships,

otherwise and necessarily destined for the provincial market, may be

brought down the Penobscot, the aggregate amount of which is

estimated, by the best judges, at five hundred millions of feet.

This has succeeded so well, that further surveys have been made with a

view to open other communications between the waters in the same

region, and, if the expectations of those interested in this matter

should be realized, it is said that the timber of some thirty

townships more will come down the Penobscot River.[15]

[15] Since the above was written, fourteen townships more have

become available.

The project of excavating the canal alluded to was suggested by the

proximity of the above-named lakes, and the remarkably favorable

position of the strip of land lying between them. The direct cause of

its being carried into effect is said to have originated in

consequence of the levying of a provincial tax on lumber cut and run

down the St. John's by Americans, in violation of an article in the

treaty adopted by the two governments in the recent settlement of the

boundary between Maine and New Brunswick.

The specific condition in the treaty thought to have been violated is

this, in substance: All timber situated on land ceded to the United

States, which, from its position, must pass down the St. John's,

"_shall be dealt with as if it were the produce of the said

province_;"[16] which condition on the part of Maine was thought to

imply freedom from duty or taxation.

[16] _Sec. III. Of the Treaty between the States and Great

Britain, 1842._--In order to promote the interests and

encourage the industry of all the inhabitants of the countries

watered by the River St. John's and its tributaries, whether

living within the State of Maine or the province of New

Brunswick, it is agreed that where, by the provisions of the

present treaty, the River St. John's is declared to be the line

of boundary, the navigation of the said river shall be free and

open to both parties, and shall in no way be obstructed by

either; that all the produce of the forest in logs, lumber,

timber, boards, staves, or shingles, or of agriculture, not

being manufactured, grown on any of those parts of the State of

Maine watered by the River St. John's or by its tributaries, of

which fact reasonable evidence shall, if required, be produced,

shall have free access into and through the said river and its

said tributaries, having their source within the State of

Maine, to and from the seaport at the mouth of the River St.

John's, and to and around the falls of the said river, either

by boats, rafts, or other conveyance; that, when within the

province of New Brunswick, the said produce shall be dealt with

as if it were the produce of the said province; that, in like

manner, the inhabitants of the territory of the Upper St.

John's, determined by this treaty to belong to her Britannic

majesty, shall have free access to and through the river for

their produce, in those parts where the said river runs wholly

through the State of Maine: _Provided, always_, That this

agreement shall give no right to either party to interfere with

any regulations not inconsistent with the terms of the treaty,

which the governments, respectively, of Maine or of New

Brunswick may make respecting the navigation of the said river,

where both banks thereof shall belong to the same party.

Therefore, in order to obtain some tribute (for it is, indeed, a trait

quite prominent in the character of John Bull to expect and demand

tribute), a duty was levied upon _all_ timber running down the St.

John's, whether from the crown lands or the territory ceded to Maine.

And the crown, in order to satisfy its loyal subjects for this new

requisition, made a corresponding discount on the stumpage charged

those hauling timber from the crown lands, while the Yankees were left

without indemnification.

But Brother Jonathan was not to be outgeneraled by this maneuver, but

characteristically "_guessed_" out a way of escape; and not only

thwarted the cunning of his crafty neighbor in this matter, but

actually laid his dominions under tribute, _nolens volens_, by

diverting a portion of the waters of St. John's River, bringing it

into the channel of the Penobscot, where it probably runs "_duty

free._" While, therefore, the Yankees thus resisted the attempted

encroachment, we doubt not but they secretly render a "_tribute_" of

_thanks_ for the provocation.

The Penobscot is not so likely to be affected by destructive freshets

as are most large rivers; for instance, the Kennebeck, whose

accumulating waters rush through its deeply-cut channel with

tremendous power, carrying all before it; and for this reason the

former runs through immense tracts of low intervale lands, which, in

time of abundant rains, act as vast reservoirs, receiving and

scattering the surplus water over thousands of acres. Nothing is

likely to produce disastrous freshets, except such as arise from

unusual causes; and as such a combination is not likely to occur once

in a century, an event of this nature is not often expected nor

dreaded.

[Illustration: GODFREY'S FALLS ON THE SEBOOIS RIVER. BANKS 200

FEET HIGH.]

The Penobscot has two principal and many minor branches; among the

latter, mention may be made of "_Mattawamkeag_," which "means a stream

running over a gravelly bed;" and the "_Piscataquis_," which is about

one hundred miles in length, and forms a junction with the main river

some thirty or forty miles above Bangor; its waters are clear as

crystal, and the current rapid. Also the "_Seboois_," several days'

journey from the mouth of the Matawamkeag. Some of the wildest and

most interesting scenery in the state occurs on this river and on the

lofty mountains in its vicinity. Godfrey's Falls, as seen in the

opposite cut, plunge around the base of high mountainous banks

hundreds of feet above the wild torrent which rushes between them.

These falls are impassable, and when boatmen arrive here they are

compelled to carry their effects and boats up a ledge on the left side

of the falls, at an angle of 45 deg., and then through the burned forest

for the distance of four miles before again attempting to navigate the

river.

Not less than fifty mountains and seventeen lakes may be seen from the

summit of Sugar-loaf Mountain, which stands a little removed from the

shores of the Seboois, as represented in the cut at the end of this

chapter; and among the interesting objects viewed from this point is

_Chase's_ Mountain, on the west side of the Seboois, very peaked,

which rises like a vast pyramid from the dense forest country around

it, a representation of which may be seen on page 211.

There are many important islands in the Penobscot; several of them

contain many hundred acres of land. Among them mention may be made of

"_Olemon_," which contains some three hundred acres; likewise "Sugar

Island," of corresponding magnitude; "Orson Island," twelve hundred

acres; "Marsh Island," five thousand acres; "Oldtown," the present

site of an Indian village, three hundred acres; Orono, one hundred and

fifty acres. On these islands are several flourishing villages,

Oldtown, Orono, and Stillwater, in the vicinity of which are the

principal mill sites, which are from seven to fourteen miles above

Bangor.

The overwhelming catastrophe which occurred on this river in the

spring of 1846 will long be remembered by those who witnessed it. The

following graphic account of this occurrence, from the pen of Dr.

West, was published in the Bangor Courier, and will be read with deep

interest:

"TO THE REV. DR. TYNG, New York.

"Reverend and dear Brother--We have passed through a scene within

the last two or three days which will deeply interest and impress

you. Our city has met with a calamity unparalleled in its annals,

and perhaps unequaled, in proportion to its population and means,

by any in our country. We have been inundated by the river in

consequence of what is called here an ice-jam. The history of the

matter is briefly as follows:

"It sometimes happens that the ice in the river breaks up above,

while it remains too strong at the outlet to admit of its passing

down. The consequence is the accumulation of a dam of ice which

completely fills the river from bank to bank, and heaps up

sometimes to the height of from fifteen to thirty feet, and thus

forming a reservoir of water above it, which overflows the banks

and inundates the country around.

"The present winter has been a remarkable one in the mode of the

formation of the ice. After the river was first frozen over, the

ice continued to form in cakes or sheets, and to flow down the

rapids to the still and frozen portions, and these were drawn

under. This continued until the submerged sheets were stopped by

rocks or shoals; then the accumulation went on until the bed of

the river became consolidated to an astonishing thickness. Around

the piers of our great bridge it was cut through to the depth of

about fourteen feet. Thus the entire bed of the river seemed to

have become, at least except the channel, an almost solid body of

ice.

[Illustration: CHASE'S MOUNTAIN, AS IT APPEARS FROM SUGAR-LOAF

MOUNTAIN.]

"The greatest fears were entertained throughout the winter for the

consequences during the spring freshet, and yet no effectual

precautions could be taken to guard against impending calamity.

The very worst of these fears have now been more than realized.

"A few days ago the river began to break up for about thirty miles

above the city, while it continued firmly bound for about twelve

miles below. There were several different spots where the jams, or

ice-dams were formed; and when they broke away, they came rushing

down with the force of a mountain torrent, until the strong ice

below resisted their progress. These jams came down one at a time,

and, lodging against another below, kept increasing their

magnitude. The two most formidable jams were within seven miles of

the city, in the vicinity of the two largest and most important

ranges of saw-mills. Those which formed above, when they broke

away, passed through at Oldtown and Stillwater with little

comparative damage other than carrying away the bridges, and

adding to the size of the jams below.

"The first movement was the raising the two principal ranges of

mills from their foundations by the rise of the water. After this

the first jam that passed down swept away the Basin mills, which

belong to a New York company, and which rented for above ten

thousand dollars per annum. They next carried away a large range

of mills belonging to some of our most enterprising citizens, and

which rented for fifteen thousand dollars per annum. One of the

proprietors thus lost about fifty thousand dollars. The mills in

these two ranges contained about fifty saws, were possessed of the

most unfailing water power, were recently fitted up with the best

improved machinery, and performed last year about one third of all

the business on the river.

"The jams thus worked their way down gradually, carrying

destruction to bridges and small houses, and other buildings on

the banks, until they were all concentrated in one immense mass of

four miles in length, of great height and depth, and filling the

river, which varies in width from one thousand to fifteen thousand

feet from bank to bank. Of the magnitude and power of such a mass,

no just conception can be formed by persons unused to similar

scenes. Above the jam the water was twenty or thirty feet above

its usual height, filling up the rapids, and making a dead level

of the falls.

"The first injury to the city was from the breaking away of a

small section of the jam, which came down and pressed against the

ice on our banks. By this, twenty houses in one immediate

neighborhood, on the west bank of the river alone, were at once

inundated, but without loss of life. This occurred in the daytime,

and presented a scene of magnificent interest. The effect of this

small concussion upon the ice near the city was terrific. The

water rose instantly to such a height as to sweep the buildings

and lumber from the ends of the wharves, and to throw up the ice

in huge sheets and pyramids. This shock was resisted by the great

covered bridge on the Penobscot, which is about one thousand feet

in length, and this gave time to save much property from impending

destruction. But, meanwhile, another auxiliary to the fearful work

had been preparing by the breaking up of the ice in the Kenduskeag

River. This river flows through the heart of the city, dividing it

into two equal portions. The whole flat on the margin of the river

is covered with stores and public buildings, and is the place of

merchandise for the city. The Kenduskeag runs nearly at right

angles with the Penobscot at the point where they unite. The

Penobscot skirts the city on the eastern side, and on the banks of

this river are the principal wharves for the deposit of lumber.

"I must mention another circumstance to give you a just idea of

our situation. There is a narrow spot in the river, about a mile

below the city, at High Head, in which is a shoal, and from which

the greatest danger of a jam always arises, and it was this that

caused the principal inundation.

"The next incident occurred at midnight, when the bells were rung

to announce the giving way of the ice. It was a fearful sound and

scene. The streets were thronged with men, women, and children,

who rushed abroad to witness the approach of the icy avalanche. At

length it came rushing on with a power that a thousand locomotives

in a body could not vie with; but it was veiled from the eye by

the darkness of a hazy night, and the ear only could trace its

progress by the sounds of crashing buildings, lumber, and whatever

it encountered in its path-way, except the glimpses that could be

caught of it by the light of hundreds of torches and lanterns that

threw their glare upon the misty atmosphere. The jam passed on,

and a portion of it pressed through the weakest portion of the

great bridge, and thus, joining the ice below the bridge, pressed

it down to the narrows at High Head. Meanwhile the destruction was

in progress on the Kenduskeag, which poured down its tributary

ice, sweeping mills, bridges, shops, and other buildings, with

masses of logs and lumber, to add to the common wreck.

"At that moment, the anxiety and suspense were fearful whether the

jam would force its way through the narrows, or there stop and

pour back a flood of waters upon the city; for it was from the

rise of the water consequent upon such a jam that the great

destruction was to be apprehended. But the suspense was soon over.

A cry was heard from the dense mass of citizens who crowded the

streets on the flat, 'The river is flowing back!' and so sudden

was the revulsion, that it required the utmost speed to escape the

rising waters. It seemed but a moment before the entire flat was

deluged; and many men did not escape from their stores before the

water was up to their waists. Had you witnessed the scene,

occurring as it did in the midst of a dark and hazy night, and had

you heard the rushing of the waters and the crash of the ruins,

and seen the multitudes retreating in a mass from the returning

flood, illumined only by the glare of torches and lanterns, and

listened to the shouts and cries that escaped from them to give

the alarm to those beyond, you would not be surprised at my being

reminded of the host of Pharaoh as they fled and sent up their cry

from the Red Sea, as it returned upon them in its strength.

"But the ruinous consequences were, providentially, the loss of

property rather than life. The whole business portion of the city

was inundated; and so entirely beyond all reasonable estimate was

the rise of the waters, that a very large proportion of all the

stocks of goods in the stores were flooded. Precautions had been

taken, in the lower part of the city, to remove goods from the

first to the second story, and yet many who did so had the floors

of the second story burst up, and their goods let down into the

waters below; while in the higher portions, where the goods were

piled up on and about the counters, the waters rose above them,

and involved them in a common destruction. Others, who did not

remove their goods, suffered a total loss of them.

"Thus far, however, the devastation was confined to the least

valuable part of the wealth of the city. The lumber on the wharves

constitutes the larger portion of the available property of the

city; and here a kind Providence has spared the devoted city, and

by one of those singular methods by which a present evil, which

seems to be the greatest that could be inflicted, is the means of

averting a greater one; for it was the occurrence of the jam

which, while it inundated the stores, appeared to be the means of

saving the lumber. The pressure of the ice against the wharves and

lumber was so great as to wedge it in with immense strength, and

formed a sort of wall outside the wharves, from which the jam,

when it started, separated and passed out, leaving the lumber

safe, though injured.

"After the ice stopped, things remained in this situation during

the next day, which was Sunday--the saddest and most serious

Sunday, probably, ever passed in Bangor. Few, however, could spend

the day in worship. All that could labor were employed, while the

flood kept rising, in rescuing what property could be saved from

the waters, and in taking poor families from their windows in

boats.

"The closing scene of this dreadful disaster occurred on Sunday

evening, beginning at about seven o'clock. The alarm was again

rung through the streets that the jam had given way. The citizens

again rushed abroad to witness what they knew must be one of the

most sublime and awful scenes of nature, and also to learn the

full extent of their calamity. Few, however, were able to catch a

sight of the breaking up of the jam, which, for magnitude, it is

certain, has not occurred on this river for more than one hundred

years. The whole river was like a boiling cauldron, with masses of

ice upheaved as by a volcano. But soon the darkness shrouded the

scene in part. The ear, however, could hear the roaring of the

waters and the crash of buildings, bridges, and lumber, and the

eye could trace the mammoth ice-jam of four miles long, which

passed on majestically, but with lightning rapidity, bearing the

contents of both rivers on its bosom. The noble covered bridge of

the Penobscot, two bridges of the Kenduskeag, and the two long

ranges of saw-mills, besides other mills, houses, shops, logs, and

lumber enough to build up a considerable village. The new market

floated over the lower bridge across the Kenduskeag, a part of

which remains, and, most happily, landed at a point of the

wharves, where it sunk, and formed the nucleus of a sort of boom,

which stopped the masses of floating lumber in the Kenduskeag, and

protected thousands of dollars' worth of lumber on the wharves

below.

"So suddenly and so rapidly was all this enacted, that it seems

impossible to believe it to have occurred without loss of life.

Yet such appears to be the happy result. Rumor, indeed, consigned

many to a watery grave, who were most unexpectedly preserved.

There were, for instance, twenty or thirty men on one of the

bridges when it gave way, some of whom jumped into the water to

save themselves, but none were lost. A raft passed down the

Kenduskeag with three or four boys upon it, and they were seen

floating into the vortex of the jam, but the raft passed near

enough to a store for them to leap from it to a platform, and thus

they saved their lives. A boat also was crossing the river when

the jam started, and the river was rushing in a torrent, but they

also got safe to land. Many such hazards occurred, but without the

loss of a single life.

"I have thus given you a very hasty and unstudied narrative of

this severe calamity, as I have gathered it before any account has

been published. I have no time or space for reflections. There

are, no doubt, many wise and good designs to be accomplished by

such an event, which will readily suggest themselves to every

Christian mind. The present state of our churches before this, I

think, was highly promising, and the presence of God's Holy Spirit

manifest. I most earnestly pray that a serious, practical, and

real reformation may ensue.

"The individual losses are very great. Some have lost their all,

and many from five to fifty thousand dollars each; yet the

aggregate will be swelled, by a first estimate, far beyond its

real amount. From what I have already seen, I think there is no

reason whatever for the friends of Bangor abroad to entertain any

distrust respecting its recovery and progressive prosperity. Such

a buoyant and elastic spirit I never saw in man, as is apparent

to-day, at the very moment when men usually most despond. There is

no such thing as depression. Despair is a word which the active

and laborious merchants of this city do not know the definition

of; and as soon as time can enable man to restore the city to its

former prosperity, it will be done. My prayer is that its future

prosperity may be tempered by a more sanctified spirit--that the

hand of God may be more recognized--the institutions of religion

more generally sustained--the uncertainty and vanity of worldly

possessions more deeply realized, and that this singularly

appropriate antidote to a bold and Heaven-daring intemperance may

dilute, if not wash it entirely away.

"Very truly, your friend and brother,

"JOHN WEST.

"Bangor, Maine, March 30, 1849."

The editor of the Bangor Courier, in some cheerful remarks upon the

incidents of the event, observes:

"We could not bring ourselves to believe that the market-house, in

which we had our office, would be removed. We were induced to move our

materials at the earnest solicitation of friends, and under their

strong advice. We felt all the while as though the alarm would soon be

over, and labor resumed in the old premises, and therefore a clumsy

article here and another there were left, until the value of the

aggregate was about two hundred dollars, the removal of which we

thought we had wisely avoided. The market moved off majestically, but

with gentle dalliance, until it plunged forward from the bridge into

the fast receding current of the stream, when it righted with a

ship-like propriety, bearing aloft a beautiful flag-staff--emblem of

Liberty, erected in honor of Henry Clay, the beloved and whole-hearted

patriot and orator, who in private station receives the highest

attentions and sincerest regards of the American people--and sped its

way onward to the ocean, until happily bethinking how many little

articles it contained which would be so missed and mourned, that it

settled down with a determination to proceed no further. We visited

the wreck in the evening, and, fearing it might prove our last, we

bore away several pamphlets and documents as prizes. At an early hour

yesterday morning we paid it another visit, when, in company with our

office hands, and the kind help and timely suggestions of personal

friends and a few strangers, we succeeded in securing every article of

value. There happened to be one case of type left in one of the racks

which had ridden out the perils and roughness of the voyage without

spilling a type.

"It may be a little fanciful, perhaps, but there seems to be an

increased value in these articles which have once slipped from us,

made the voyage of the stream, and are, at length, so unexpectedly and

singularly recovered. One of our citizens--a Kennebecker,

by-the-way--was particularly zealous in saving the Whig flag-staff,

declaring it should long remain to bear aloft the flag of freemen.

"The whole river seems to have been an entire mass of ice, partly

solid and partly porous. The sudden rise of the river excited alarm,

and its sudden subsidence, at the rate of about two feet a minute,

caused astonishment.

"There is in the upper side, and near the middle of Exchange street, a

large cake of ice more than five feet thick. On Broad street there are

ice-balls twenty-five feet in diameter, and scattered about in every

direction are thousands of smaller masses.

"It will be difficult for people who did not witness it to realize

that all the business part of the city was a pool in which large

vessels might sail--that Exchange street, and Main street, and others

lower down, were deep canals for half their length, and that Central

street was a running river. But such things were, and hundreds of

stores were under water! Boats were in requisition, and various

contrivances were resorted to in the effort to turn an honest penny.

Among them we noticed one fellow had taken the Wall street sign, and

fastened it upon the stern of his boat, in order to popularize his

boat and route. The scene in the vicinity of the steam-boat wharf or

at the Rose Place is truly astonishing--such heaps of ice thrown in

wild confusion, furnishing a capital idea of icebergs from the

Northern Ocean. We advise our friends to visit these places, and to

gather in some idea of the mighty power of the flood and of the

process of making ice mountains.

"It is quite wonderful, considering the suddenness and extent of the

rise of the water, that no more lives were lost in this vicinity.

There were some families in great peril. A family living at the Point,

between Brewer village and the river, were alarmed by the approach of

the flood, and started, several women in the number, for higher land

in the vicinity, but, before reaching it, the water was up to their

armpits. They reached what was then an island, and were compelled to

remain during the night. A family living near Crosby's ship-yard could

not escape, and were taken off in a boat by one of the neighbors.

"Twenty women and children, as the water flowed over the plain at

Brewer, fled to a school-house, but could not return, and were obliged

to go back upon the hills and remain until the water subsided.

"General Miller, at the post-office, with his clerks, had a cool time

of it. They were all at work, when the flood suddenly came upon them,

and filled the office to the depth of four feet. The general started,

and held the door for the clerks to dodge out and escape up stairs;

but Calvin lingered behind for some minutes, when the general called

loudly to know what detained him.

"'Oh,' said he, wading along with the water up to his armpits, 'I

stopped for the purpose of stamping these paid letters,' at the same

time holding up a bundle.

"We are happy to add that Calvin remains perfectly cool, and that in

three hours after getting into the old office yesterday morning, every

thing was cleaned up and business going on as usual.

"The actual amount of property lost in the city by this flood is

estimated by pretty good judges at between two and three hundred

thousand dollars. This falls severely upon some of our citizens, but

the heaviest losses come upon those able to ride out the storm."

But, notwithstanding the severity of this visitation, few traces are

left to denote it, at least to impress the stranger's mind. Bridges

have been re-erected, damages repaired, and the business community

have risen from under it with the elasticity of a sapling oak after

the tempest has overpast.

Between fifty and sixty saws were swept away, which have not yet

(1848) been replaced.

The following table, showing the condition of the lumber manufacture

and trade on the Penobscot, has been obtained from the most reliable

sources of information, and is presented for the inspection of those

interested in such matters.

Number of saw-mills on the Penobscot and tributaries, 240.

Number of clap-board machines, 20.

Number of lath machines, 200.

Amount of long lumber sawed annually,[17] 200,000,000 feet, at $10.00

per _M._

Amount of laths sawed annually, 400,000,000 pieces, at $1.00 per

_M._

Amount of clap-boards sawed annually, 5,500,000 pieces, at $18.00 per

_M._

Amount of shingles[18] sawed and split annually, 110,000,000 pieces, at

$2.50 per _M._

Amount of pickets[19] sawed annually, 10,000,000 pieces, at $6.50 per

_M._

The number of men, oxen, and horses employed directly and indirectly

on this river alone, would not vary, probably, much from twenty

thousand.[20]

[17] The amount varies from year to year, sometimes exceeding,

and then again falling short of the amount above stated.

[18] Sawed on the river and from the country.

[19] There are various other kinds of short lumber, such as

staves, sash and window-blind stuff, not enumerated.

[20] The author, in preparing the above statement, has availed

himself of the most reliable sources of information, and would

particularly mention the following gentlemen, to whose

intelligence and kindness he is particularly obligated Mr. S.

Harris, of the surveyor general's office; Rufus Dwinel, Esq.,

and Mr. Taylor, of Bangor; also A. W. Babcock, Esq., and

several other gentlemen of Orono.

The reader may inquire with some curiosity, "Where does all this

lumber find a market?" We may remind such that Maine has furnished, in

times past, the principal part of the lumber consumed in the United

States and the West India Islands, though other states in the Union

possess immense tracts of fine timber land, which, as the lumbering

interests of Maine diminish, will be cut and brought into market.

Indeed, such movements have already become quite common in the western

part of the State of New York, and also in Pennsylvania and Georgia,

as well as in other portions of the country where there are large

tracts of timber land, much of which has already been bought up by

Eastern lumbermen.

In regard to the consumption of lumber, we may observe that the island

of Cuba alone consumes forty millions of feet per annum for the one

article of sugar-boxes. The city of Boston is supposed to make use of

the same amount per annum for building and cabinet purposes.

Persons unacquainted with the resources of the Penobscot are

continually anticipating a decrease in the amount of lumber from the

great tribute under which our forests have been already laid; but

those who are best qualified to judge estimate that there is now

timber enough standing in the forests, on territories through which

the waters of the Penobscot pass, to maintain the present annual

operations, vast as they are, for fifty successive years, after which

it is thought the amount will diminish about _one tenth_ per annum

until its final consumption, when, doubtless, the pursuits of the

lumbermen will give place to the labors and rewards of husbandry, and

to the working of the various veins of mineral deposits already known

and yet to be discovered.

A period not as long, probably, as from the landing of the Pilgrims at

Plymouth to the present time, will transpire, ere the loggers' camp

will give place to the farm-house, and golden fields of waving grain

relieve the sun-hid earth of the gigantic forests so long cherished

upon its laboring bosom.

We can seem to look through the following prophetic verse as a magic

spy-glass, which dispels _time_ as well as space, and see the reality

it points out pass vividly before the imagination.

"Loud behind us grow the murmurs

Of the age to come,

Clang of smiths and tread of farmers,

Bearing harvests home!

Here her virgin lap with treasures

Shall the green earth fill,

Waving wheat and golden maize-ears

Crown each beechen hill."

The reader may be asked, in conclusion, to estimate the results of

fifty years' lumbering on the Penobscot. What a vast revenue, in

addition to the agricultural interests of the contiguous country! When

we look to Bangor, so favorably located at the head of navigation,

the grand center of all these great interests, it would seem not

irrational to predict for it a glorious career in growth, wealth, and

importance, nor improbable that the same may be fully realized. She is

surrounded by resources of wealth altogether beyond any other town or

city in the state, of which neither her citizens, with all their

foresight, nor capitalists, seem to be fully aware.

Of one great disadvantage, which must retard her progress, mention may

be made, viz., capitalists _abroad_ own too much of the territory on

her river. A judicious policy in business must be steadily pursued,

else she may only prove the mere _outlet_ through which the wealth of

her territory shall pass to other hands, leaving her with the bitter

inheritance of one day becoming possessed of the knowledge, when too

late, of what she _might have been_.

[Illustration: SEBOOIS RIVER--SUGAR-LOAF MOUNTAIN, 1900 FEET HIGH.]

CHAPTER V.

Length of Kennebeck.--Moose-head Lake.--Its peculiar Shape.--Its

Islands.--Burned Jacket.--Interesting Deposit.--Mount Kineo.--The

Prospect from its Summit.--Moose River.--Old Indian.--The Banks of

the Kennebeck.--Beauties of the Country, &c.--Lumber on Dead River.

--Falls at Waterville.--Skowhegan Falls.--Arnold's Encampment.--

Nau-lau-chu-wak.--Caritunk Falls.--Lumber.--Statistics.--Author's

Acknowledgments.--Androscoggin.--Course and other Peculiarities.--A

question of Rivalry.--Water Power.--Original Indications.--Interesting

Sketch of Rumford Falls.--Estimated Water Power.--Lumber Statistics.

--Droughts and Freshets.--Umbagog Lake.--The serpentine Megalloway.

--Granite Mountains.--Beautiful Foliage.--Romantic Falls.--Character

of Country.--Manner of Life in Log-cutting, &c.--Statistics, &c.--

Presumpscot River, great Water-powers of.--Warmth of Water.--

Statistical Remarks.--Saco River.

The beautiful Kennebeck lies about sixty miles west of the Penobscot

River, running from north to south, nearly parallel with the latter,

constituting one of those great marks of designation which divide the

state longitudinally into three sections south of the 46th degree of

north latitude to the sea-coast inclusive.

[Illustration: VIEW OF LILY BAY, ON MOOSE-HEAD LAKE.]

The Kennebeck takes its rise in the southwest section of Moose-head

Lake (according to Mitchel's Atlas), so called, probably, from the

near resemblance it has, with its numerous coves, arms, and bays, to

the branchy horns of the moose. As laid down on some maps,

particularly on the map of the Eastern States in Smith's Atlas,

published by J. Paine, of Hartford, it requires but a small exercise

of the imagination to see in its outlines the form of an immense

animal, making the portage from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the

Atlantic Ocean with fearful strides of fifteen miles each. The figure

of the lake, as laid down on Mitchel's maps, corresponds more exactly

with the branching appearance of a moose horn. "Its whole extent, from

north to south, is about forty miles, and varies in width from one to

eight miles, and very irregular in shape, owing to its deep coves,

bays, and islands, which in some parts almost fill the lake. Many of

these islands are mere ledges of slate, covered with a scanty growth

of cedar and fir, rising perpendicularly from the surface of the

water, which fall suddenly to a great depth by their sides. Others are

large islands of many acres, well wooded, and bordered by beaches of

sand, as well as by ledges of rock. On the eastern side, a few miles

from the foot of the lake, rises a high rocky point, called Burned

Jacket. It is composed of gneiss, curiously crossed in every direction

by veins of quartz. Its sides are covered with huge blocks of gneiss

which have fallen from the top, forming long dens and passages between

them. On a small, low island, northwest from Moose Island, I found the

beach almost covered with fine black ferruginous sand. It is the

common black sand used in writing. It lies upon and in a strata with

the yellow beach sand, and may be collected in great abundance. Such

sand is commonly sold, when put up in pound papers, at six cents each.

To obtain large quantities, it might be scooped up with shovels, and

afterward separated from the yellow sand by powerful magnets." Take

your knife-blade, when charged with the magnet, and immerse it in your

sand-box, and quantities will adhere to it, leaving whatever is

foreign to itself. "Mount Kineo, to which allusion has already been

made, has the appearance of a huge artificial wall of stone rising

directly out of the water on the eastern side of the lake, opposite

the mouth of Moose River." "We paddled under its cliffs, which jutted

out over our heads at a height of five or six hundred feet. Below,

they descend perpendicularly ninety feet. The northern and western

sides are covered with trees, and slope so that one can reach the top

by a path along the edge of the precipice. From its summit is enjoyed

a beautiful prospect of the lake, with its islands, and of the

adjoining country, forming a most picturesque landscape. The country,

to the northward and westward, is generally low. Moose River is seen

making its way through it, and finally emptying into the lake on the

opposite side. To the eastward the country is more hilly, until the

view is lost among the mountains of the Ktaadn group. On looking down

from the edge of the precipice, we see the water directly beneath; and

so steep and overhanging is the rock, that by a single leap one might

throw himself from almost the highest point, and strike the water six

hundred feet below, and many feet distant from the base of the

mountain. Mount Kineo receives its name from that of an old Indian who

formerly lived and hunted in its vicinity."

The most striking feature of the Kennebeck is derived from the

well-cultivated and beautiful country through which its waters flow.

"From Anson to Bath," a distance of about eighty miles, it passes

through a particularly well-cultivated section, presenting an extent

of territory probably under a higher state of cultivation than any

other division of the state.

To use the complimentary and probably truthful remarks of a gentleman

long a resident at the capital, Augusta, "No river in the United

States, within the same distance, can be found with more pleasant and

delightful scenery, more beautiful villages, or a more thriving

population." "The principal business places on its banks are,

beginning at its mouth, Bath, Richmond, Gardiner, Pittston, Hallowell,

Augusta, Waterville, Fairfield, Bloomfield, Millburn, Norridgewock,

and Anson. Bath has long been known for its ship-building, having

furnished many of the finest ships engaged in our European trade.

Richmond, Gardiner, Pittston, and some other towns on the river, have

also built many fine vessels. From Merry-meeting Bay (the confluence

of the Kennebeck and Androscoggin from the west) to the Dead River is

a fine farming country, while the lumbering region on the Kennebeck,

for the most part, extends northward to the lake, around it and its

tributaries, and at the Dead River. Formerly a considerable quantity

of lumber was cut on the Sebasticook; but now the quantity is very

much diminished, owing to the scarcity of logs on that river."

There are several noted falls on the river; the first is at

Waterville. "The Kennebeck River is there observed rushing through a

breach which has been formed by the disruption of stratified

argillaceous slate." "The fall of water is from a ledge of these

rocks, and varies from eighteen to twenty feet, according to the state

of the river."

The next considerable fall on the river is at Skowhegan, "produced by

the falling of the Kennebeck over a rocky ledge to the distance of

from ten to twelve feet. During the fatal campaign of Arnold, his army

encamped upon an island near the falls, and occasionally relics of the

encampment are now found, such as pipes, coins, &c."

[Illustration: SKOWHEGAN FALLS, ON THE KENNEBECK.]

At Norridgewock the Kennebeck plunges about ten feet over ledges of

hard argillaceous slate, which constitute another step in the series

of pitches over which the river passes, seeking its home and level in

the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean. Nau-lau-chu-wak is said to be the

original and true Indian orthography, the sense of which is this:

these falls, or this place, is the only obstruction to navigation.

At Caritunk Falls, still further up river, and half a mile from Solon

village, "the Kennebeck dashes over hard quartz rock and mica slate

ledges, which run northeast, southwest, and dip northwest 60 deg.

Measured barometrically, the fall is sixteen feet perpendicular, but

is said sometimes to be upward of twenty feet. The gorge through which

the water passes is fifty feet."[21]

[21] Geological Reports of Maine.

The lumbering interests on the Kennebeck still hold a marked

prominence.

There is reported on this river and its tributaries, from Bath

northward, including all its tributaries (not including the

Androscoggin as one), one hundred and fifty saw-mills, several of

which, from Augusta down, are driven by steam.

Averaging the various amounts of long lumber, as reported from sources

the most reliable, we report 66,900,000 feet as the amount of long

lumber sawed in one year, though not the invariable amount, as this

differs on all rivers more or less, as the various influences to which

this business is subjected operate. The average price of long lumber

has been variously estimated by different gentlemen who have given an

opinion, but, from the best evidences before me, I venture to put it

down at $12 per _M._

But the question here occurs, and to my own mind with distinct

impressiveness, Why is there so great a disparity in the prices of

long lumber on the Kennebeck and the Penobscot? This question I can

not satisfactorily answer to myself, and to it I venture but one

suggestion in reply. The probability is, that, in the wholesale

slaughter (so to speak) of lumber on the Penobscot, there may be a

larger proportion of the fourth, fifth, and sixth qualities of

lumber--as it is there distinguished--than on the Kennebeck.

Having made application to some of the most intelligent lumbermen on

the Penobscot for a solution of this question, I may yet be able to

append such facts as the inquiry may elicit.

From the best sources of information to which I have had access, the

following is furnished as a tolerable approximation to the truth in

relation to the amount and value of short lumber:

Laths, 17 millions, at $100.00 per _M._=$17,000.

Clap-boards, 4 millions, at 15.00 per _M._= 60,000.

Shingles, 26-1/2 millions, at 2.50 per _M._= 66,250.

The "Gardiner Fountain" for January 28, 1848, reports the following as

the amount of the various denominations of lumber manufactured at

Gardiner and Pittston:

"Long lumber, 20,824 _M._; Shingles, 16,302 _M._; Clap-boards, 1905

_M._; and of pickets, 50 _M._" The editor remarks that "the amount of

money received for sales on the above lumber is $445,000." In addition

to other kinds of lumber, there are large quantities of door and blind

stuff not enumerated.

There remains but one observation to be made touching the lumber

business on the Kennebeck. It is estimated by good judges that the

present annual amount of lumber on this river may be hauled for ten

successive years, after which it will depreciate one fourth every ten

years, and thus, in forty years, exhaust the resources of the river.

For the principal facts involved in the above statements, not duly

credited already, I am indebted to Mr. A. W. Babcock, an intelligent

gentleman and extensive operator on the Penobscot; also to Mr. E.

Bartlett, of Augusta, whose zeal in furnishing answers to the various

questions proposed for consideration has only been equaled by the

degree of readiness which he has manifested to assist me; and to M.

Springer, Esq., deputy collector of the customs for the port of

Gardiner, Maine.

STATISTICS OF LUMBER ON THE KENNEBECK.

+-----------------------+---------------+-------------+---------+

| | |Average price| Total. |

| | | per M. | |

| | +-------------+---------|

|No. of Saw-mills | 150. | | |

|Amount of Long Lumber | 66,000,900. | $12.00. |$802,000.|

|Amount of Laths | 17,000,000. | 1.00. | 17,000.|

|Amount of Clap-boards | 4,000,000. | 15.00. | 60,000.|

|Amount of Shingles | 26,000,500. | 2.50. | 66,250.|

| | | |---------|

| | | |$946,500.|

|Probable number of men | | | |

| employed |1,200 to 1,500.| | |

|Probable number of Oxen| | | |

| and Horses employed | 1,000. | | |

+-----------------------+---------------+-------------+---------+

Taking leave of the beautiful Kennebeck, the flourishing villages

which skirt its borders, and its rich, productive farms, spreading

east and west, our attention is next arrested by the serpentine

Androscoggin, with its vast water power.

"From Merry-meeting Bay, into which it empties, to Lewiston Falls, it

formerly went by the name of Peyepscook or Pyepscook, which means

crooked, like a diving snake," strikingly expressive of the zigzag

course of the stream, and the numerous pitches in its channel, giving

it the appearance, or at least suggesting the idea, of the movements

of a diving eel.

The length of this river is set down at two hundred and fifty miles,

though the distance, in a direct line from the point where it takes

its rise to its mouth, does not probably exceed one hundred miles. It

is this circumstance which gives it an opportunity to drain a large

territory, and, though less numerously attended with tributary streams

than either the Kennebeck or Penobscot, it is said to discharge more

water during the year than either of the latter rivers.

To glance at the map and institute a comparison between the Penobscot

and Androscoggin, the former sixty miles longer, with its hundreds of

lakes, numerous branches and tributaries, ramifying nearly one third

the area of the entire state, in the regions of ice and snow,

mountains and wildernesses, then survey the Androscoggin, with

comparatively few tributaries or lakes, and the thing seems incredible

that the latter annually pours into the Atlantic more water than the

former; yet actual surveys, made by the late Colonel Baldwin, J. A.

Beard, Esq., and others, have demonstrated this result with

mathematical certainty. In time of freshets, in the spring and fall,

doubtless the Penobscot disgorges more water; but during the summer

and winter months the waters of the Androscoggin exceed in quantity.

The country through which this river flows, "from Brunswick," a few

miles from its junction with the Kennebeck, "to Dixfield, sixty miles

distant, is not remarkable in its features; but from the latter place

to Umbagog Lake," the grand reservoir of the Androscoggin, "and from

Phillips, in Franklin county, westward, up the Megalloway River," the

extreme north tributary of the Androscoggin, "some thirty or forty

miles, the country is said to be wonderful for its mountains."

Respecting the water power and privileges on this river, Colonel A. J.

Stone, to whom I am chiefly under obligations for the facts involved

in this part of my work, says, "I doubt whether there is a state in

the Union that can show so many as we can on the Androscoggin and its

tributaries."

[Illustration: RUMFORD FALLS, ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER.]

"There are now three or four water-falls at Rumford, on this river,

while anciently there must have been others of greater magnitude, for

deep holes are seen worn high up on the rocky banks, where the waters

never ran in modern times. Now the whole descent is divided into two

principal and two minor falls, the first two being from six to ten

feet, the middle seventy feet perpendicular, and the fourth twenty

feet, while the whole pitch is estimated at one hundred and eighty

feet. It is the middle fall, however, that will attract the attention

of the traveler, for there the torrent of water pouring down with the

noise of thunder, and dashing itself into foam as it chafes the rocky

walls, produces an effect full of grandeur."--_Geological Reports._

"In the distance of half a mile on the river, at this place

(Brunswick), we have forty-one feet fall (three dams across the

river), consequently the water may be used in this distance three

times." "By a survey made by the late Colonel Baldwin, the capacity of

the Androscoggin is sufficient for carrying two hundred thousand

spindles." Numerous privileges of the same capacity are of frequent

occurrence. All that is requisite to make this river the seat of the

most extensive factory operations in the world is capital, and from

the superior water power here presented, it is fair to presume that

the attention of capitalists may ultimately lead to investments in

manufacturing on a magnificent scale.

At Livermore some incipient movements are making for the erection of

factories by a company. At Brunswick, a cotton factory, with four

thousand six hundred spindles, is already in operation.

In relation to the lumbering business on this river, the chief object

of attention in noticing this and the rivers already alluded to, there

are "from two to three million feet of lumber run down, and about the

same amount is purchased (in the log) on the Kennebeck, and taken up

through Merry-meeting Bay, and manufactured at Brunswick yearly."

"Five millions are manufactured into boards, and about one million

into clap-boards and shingles, &c. About one half of the five millions

manufactured into boards are shipped to Boston, Mass., Providence and

Fall River, R.I., and to the West Indies. The remaining half are

manufactured here into sugar-box shooks for the Havana market."

The mean or average price which lumber bears per _M._ here is $14.30.

The "resources for lumber on this river are very limited. The

principal dealers are about leaving the business, though lumber, in

small quantities, will probably be run for twenty or thirty years."

Logs are driven about one hundred and fifty miles, this being the

longest drive. Others are hauled on to the river within forty miles of

Brunswick.

From the causes alluded to, the Androscoggin is not much affected with

drought, nor so seriously by freshets as most rivers, the mills being

protected by ledges. "The river is very crooked, and when we have an

_ice_ freshet, it is piled up in large quantities in the bends of

the river, in some instances for five or six miles. Such was the case

nine years since--also last spring; but the damage to our mills in

these two ice freshets was but trifling."

[Illustration: VIEW OF UMBAGOG LAKE--SOURCE OF THE ANDROSCOGGIN.]

Umbagog Lake, from which the Androscoggin takes its rise, from the

construction of its shores, acts as a regulator upon the height of the

water. When the Megalloway rises, it flows into the Androscoggin, and

raises its waters, so that they run back into the lake for the

distance of two miles, having the appearance of a river running back

to its source. The Androscoggin rises from the western side of the

lake, and here is a sluggish stream, with low, grassy banks five feet

high, covered with scattering swamp Maple-trees. "The Megalloway

River is extremely serpentine and wild in its course, winding its way

amid high mountains, while its banks are composed of sandy loam,

covered thickly with Maple-trees."

[Illustration: FRYE'S FALLS, ON A TRIBUTARY OF ELLIS RIVER.]

"The Umbagog Lake is an irregular, shallow sheet of water, with grassy

and boggy shores, and is surrounded by lofty mountains of granite,

which in September are clothed with the red and yellow foliage of

Maple and Birch trees, the former greatly predominating, and covering

the mountains to their very summits." Among other objects of romantic

interest are "Frye's Falls, in Andover Surplus," upon Frye's Stream,

so called. "This stream rushes over a precipitous mass of granite,

gneiss, and mica slate rocks, precipitating itself by a fall of

twenty-five feet into a rocky basin below. The chasm is fifteen feet

wide, and the basin fifty-five feet broad. Here the waters form a

beautiful pool, and then leap again, by a second fall of twenty feet,

into another larger and shallower reservoir, from which they descend

gradually to Sawyer's Brook, running into Ellis River."

[Illustration: RUMFORD BRIDGE, ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER.]

There are about sixty saw-mills on this river and its tributaries,

thirty-two of which are at Brunswick and Topsham; about two hundred

shingle machines, most of which manufacture for home consumption; ten

only, or thereabouts, manufacture for markets abroad, which cut about

three hundred thousand to a machine. Average price per _M._, $2.75.

Though there are said to be fifty clap-board machines of some sort

on the river, yet only "nine can be reckoned as manufacturing for

market," "which, owing to the scanty supply of timber, cut only about

fifty _M._" to a machine. Average price of clap-boards per _M._,

$22.50. There are only nine lath machines, which, as is reported, for

want of material, cut only about two hundred and fifty thousand to a

machine. Average price per _M._, $1.18.

Throwing the whole, then, into a tabular form, we have presented for

our inspection the results of the lumbering operations on the

Androscoggin, for the market, as follows:

ANDROSCOGGIN.

+---------------------------+----------+------------+--------+

| | | Average | |

| | | price | Total. |

| | | per M. | |

| | +------------+--------+

|No. of Saw-mills | 60. | | |

|No. of Shingle Machines | 10. | | |

|No. of Clap-board Machines | 9. | | |

|No. of Lath Machines | 9. | | |

|No. of Long Lumber |5,000,000.| $14.30. | 71,500.|

|No. of Shingles |3,000,000.| 2.75. | 8,250.|

|No. of Clap-boards | 450,000.| 22.50. | 12,375.|

|No. of Laths |2,250,000.| 1.18. | 2,773.|

| | | |------- |

| | | |$94,898.|

+---------------------------+----------+------------+--------+

There is also a small amount of lumber manufactured on the

Presumpscot, a small river about fifty miles long, if we include

Sebago Pond as a connecting link between Presumpscot Proper and the

continuation of the inlet stream, which takes its rise about twenty

miles east of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, running southwest,

and finally emptying into Casco Bay, a few miles north of Portland.

"There are said to be seventeen falls of water on this river within

twenty miles of Portland, each affording a good site for mills, and a

sufficient volume of water on each pitch to carry eight hundred looms,

together with all other needed machinery for such purposes." "Sebago

Lake is a thoroughfare and feeder of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal,

and there are between the lake and the sea twenty-six locks of nearly

ten feet each, making the fall equal to two hundred and fifty-five

feet." The fountains of this river are so springy that "the water

never freezes so as to prevent or impede operations," nor are they

troubled with droughts; the current is ever-living.

At Sacarappa, on the Presumpscot, there are six saws for long lumber,

two shingle and two lath machines. At Great Falls there are four saws,

also four more a few miles up the river, and four shingle and four

lath machines. Above Sebago Pond there are also four more saw-mills,

the produce of which finds a domestic market in the neighboring towns.

The resources for lumber on this river are nearly exhausted, as must

be evident from the settled condition of the country through which it

runs its short career.

Having no means by which to ascertain the various amounts of lumber

manufactured on this river, I will venture upon a calculation, with a

view to make results more tangible, keeping in view the scanty

resources lumbermen must have in such a country for logs.

There are fourteen saws reported which manufacture for exportation.

With a proper head of water and a sufficient number of logs, one saw

is capable of cutting a million feet per annum. But, in the absence of

the necessary supply of logs, we should feel inclined to limit the

amount manufactured per saw to one hundred and fifty thousand feet,

board measure, the average price of which is said to be $12 per

_M._

Of lath machines there are six reported, capable, under favorable

circumstances, of cutting one million pieces per annum to a machine.

But in this instance, from the scanty supply of material, we should

not feel warranted in an estimate exceeding two hundred thousand to

each machine as the average product, worth probably about the same as

similar kinds of lumber on the Androscoggin.

Six shingle machines may be supposed to produce a limited amount of

this kind of lumber, for the same general reason assigned for the

scanty supply of other kinds. Two hundred and fifty thousand to each

machine, worth two dollars and fifty cents per _M._, may therefore be

considered not extravagant.

Some attention has been given to factory operations on this river at

Sacarappa, where there is one mill with three hundred and sixty looms,

whether for cotton or wool I am uninformed.

TABLE.

Number of saws manufacturing for market, 14.

Number of lath and shingle machines, do., 12.

Amount of long lumber 2,100,000, at $12.00 = $25,200.

Number of thousand shingles 1,500,000, at 2.50 = 3,750.

Number of thousand laths 1,200,000, at 1.12 = 1,344.

------

Total $30,294.

Though this is comparatively a small lumber operation, still, provided

the truth has been approximated in the estimates made, this done

annually amounts to no mean revenue, and affords employment to not a

few persons, supplying bread for many mouths, and enriching those who

conduct the business. While such operations build up many beautiful

villages along the romantic banks of those fine streams and rivers

where falls occur, they also give an impulse to the farming interests

of the country contiguous, and serve as so many little hearts in the

great system, whose pulsations vibrate with general intelligence,

education, and improved manners throughout the interior.

For the principal _facts_ involved in the view given of the Presumpscot

and its lumbering interests, I am mainly indebted to the kindness of E.

Clarke, M.D., of Portland, Maine.

The next considerable river is Saco, which rises among the White

Mountains of New Hampshire, at the _notch_ near where the Ammonoosuc

River takes its rise. The Saco, from its source to the Atlantic Ocean,

into which it empties, is about one hundred and forty miles in length,

its current rapid, and waters clear. In common with many other rivers,

some portion of it is exceedingly crooked. Within the single town of

Fryeburg its serpentine windings are said to be thirty-six miles,

making in this meandering only four miles on a direct line. Fine

intervale lands abound in this vicinity, and also in Brownfield.

There are four noted falls on this river. The first is called _Great

Falls_, at Hiram, where the water plunges down a ledge of rugged rocks

seventy-two feet. At Lemington are the _Steep Falls_, of twenty feet.

At Buxton are _Salmon Falls_, of thirty feet; and ten miles below we

come to _Saco Falls_, where the river is divided by _Indian Island_,

containing thirty acres, and on each side the river tumbles over a

precipice of rocks forty-two feet high, and disappears amid the waves

of the Atlantic. From the east side of the above-named island, which is

fertile and pleasant, the appearance of these falls is majestic.

This river is easily affected by freshets. At such times the water

rises ten feet, and sometimes it has risen twenty-five feet; when in

many places it overflows its banks, and makes great havoc with

property.

This was particularly the case in the great flood of October, 1775,

when a large stream, called _New River_, broke out of the _White

Mountains_, and bore down every thing in its way, till it found a

channel in Ellis River. The Saco, being swelled enormously by this

accession to its waters, swept away mills, bridges, domestic animals,

and great quantities of lumber.

The burst of New River from the mountains was a great phenomenon; and

as its waters were of a reddish brown or blood color, the people

considered it an ill omen in those times of revolution.[22]

[22] Williamson's History of Maine.

In regard to the lumbering interests on this river we know but little,

save that in years gone by it has constituted a large share of the

business done on the river, and that at the present time it has so

much diminished as to be comparatively unimportant.[23]

[23] Several letters were written to different gentlemen at

Saco, such as were named to me by their friends abroad, for

information on this subject; but from some cause, they have

remained silent, having taken no notice of my letters, which,

I am happy to say, forms but _one_, and the only exception to

the prompt and intelligent responses the author has received

from gentlemen wherever his inquiries have been directed,

whether to the province of New Brunswick, or to gentlemen in

Calais, Bangor, Augusta, Brunswick, and Portland, Maine.

CHAPTER VI.

NEW BRUNSWICK.

Object of the Chapter.--Description of St. John's River.--First

Falls.--Contiguous Country.--"Mars Hill."--Prospect.--Grand Falls.

--The Acadians, curious Facts respecting them.--The Mirimachi

River.--Immense amount of Timber shipped.--Riots.--State of

Morals.--The great Mirimachi Fire.--Hurricane.--Destruction of

Human Life.--Area of the Fire.--Vessels in Harbor.--Painfully

disgusting Sights.--Destruction among Fish.--Fire, rapidity of

Progress.--Curious instance of Escape.--Ristigouche River, its

Length.--Capacious Harbor.--Appearance of the Country.--High

Banks.--Groves of Pine.--A Statistical Table.

With a view to give a general outline of the immense capacities of the

strip of country lying east of the St. Lawrence, between the latitudes

of 42 deg. and 44 deg. north, I shall include (as the terminus of Maine, not

regarding geographical lines) that part of the country known as the

province of New Brunswick, whose lumber in quality has, in years past,

quite outrivaled that of Maine.

The River St. John's, the Mississippi of the East, "has a course of

nearly six hundred miles from its source, near the Chaudiere, in Lower

Canada, to where it falls into the Bay of Fundy. At its entrance into

the harbor the river passes through a fissure of solid and overhanging

rock, exhibiting every appearance of having been formed by some

convulsion of nature. The volume of water collected in a course of so

many hundred miles, being here compelled to pass through so narrow a

passage as thirteen hundred feet, occasions what are called the Falls

of St. John's, which are merely a sluice on a grand scale. At times of

great floods, the appearance from the overhanging precipices is truly

wonderful, and the noise tremendous, particularly on the ebb of tide.

The ordinary rise of the tide above the falls is only six feet, and

then only when the river is not swollen. The tide must flow twelve

feet below before the river becomes passable for vessels; the time for

such passage lasts about twenty minutes after the rise of tide creates

a fall from below; on the returning tide the water becomes level for

the same space of time, and thus only at four times in the twenty-four

hours can vessels enter St. John's harbor, in which the rise of tide

is from twenty-five to thirty feet. Above the falls the river widens,

and forms a bay of some magnitude, surrounded by high and rugged

woodland. Passing up the bay, huge calcareous rocks, and vast, dark

pine forests stretch up the sides of lofty hills and promontories."

From the city of St. John's, which is contiguous to the falls, up to

Fredericton (the seat of government), ninety miles distant, there is

much to admire in the bays and beautiful islands which dot its limpid

waters. A great portion of the land skirting its banks is alluvial,

running back to beautiful ridges which swell up in the distance, and

"the result is a luxuriant landscape." "For one hundred and thirty

miles further the river flows through a fertile wooded country."

"Sixty-three miles above Fredericton are the towns of Northampton and

Woodstock. The next conspicuous place we reach is Mars Hill, about

five miles and a half west of the River St. John's, and one hundred

from Fredericton. This town has considerable interest attached to it

from the circumstance of its being the point fixed on by the British

commissioners as the commencement of the range of highlands forming

the boundary of the United States. The mountain is about three miles

in length, with a base upward of four miles, an elevation of two

thousand feet above the sea, and twelve hundred above the source of

the St. Croix. Near the summit it is almost perpendicular. As it is

the highest point in its vicinity, the prospect commands a great

extent of territory. Immediately beneath stretch the vast forests of

which the adjacent country is composed, whose undulatory swells,

'clothed with the somber evergreen of the Fir, Spruce, Hemlock, and

Pine, and the lighter green of the Beech, the Birch, and Maple,

resembling, while they exceed, the stupendous waves of the ocean.'

About twenty-five miles north, on the St. John's, we come to the Grand

Falls, where the river passes, greatly contracted, between rugged

cliffs, overhung with trees, sweeping along a descent of several feet

with fearful impetuosity, until the interruption of a ridge of rocks

changes the hitherto unbroken volume into one vast body of turbulent

foam, which thunders over a perpendicular precipice, about fifty feet

in height, into a deep vortex among huge black rocks, when the St.

John's rolls out impetuously through a channel still more confined in

width over a succession of falls for about a mile, the cliffs here

overhanging the river so much as to conceal it."

"When the sun's rays fall upon the mists and spray perpetually rising

from the cataract, a gorgeous _iris_ is seen floating in the air,

waving its rich colors over the white foam, and forming a beautiful

contrast with the somber rocks, covered with dark cedars and pines,

which overhang the abyss."

"The St. John's is much broader above the falls than it is below; and

there are but few rapids, and none of them dangerous to navigate."

About thirty miles above the falls we come to the 'Madawaska

settlement, the population of which is estimated at three thousand

souls.' "Most of the settlers are French neutrals or Acadians, who

were driven by British violence from their homes in Nova Scotia

(called by the French Acadia) on the 17th of July, 1775. These people

at first established themselves above Fredericton, and subsequently

removed above the Grand Falls, and effected this settlement. The

Acadians are a very peculiar people, remarkable for the simplicity of

their manners and their fidelity to their employers. Although they are

said to be 'sharp at a bargain,' they are remarkably honest,

industrious, and respectful, and are polite and hospitable to each

other and to strangers. It is curious to observe how perfectly they

have retained all their French peculiarities. The forms of their

houses, the decorations of their apartments, dress, mode of cookery,

&c., are exactly such as they originally were in the land of their

ancestors. They speak a kind of _patois_, or corrupted French, but

perfectly understand the modern language as spoken in Paris. But few

persons can be found who can understand or speak English, and these

are such as, from the necessities of trade, have learned a few words

of the language. None of the women or children either understand or

speak English.

"The Acadians are a cheerful, contented, and happy people, social in

their intercourse, and never pass each other without a kind

salutation. While they thus retain all the marked characteristics of

the French peasantry, it is a curious fact that they appear to know

but little respecting the country from which they originated, and but

few of them have the least idea of its geographical situation. Thus we

were asked, when we spoke of France, if it were not separated from

England by a river, or if it were near the coast of Nova Scotia; and

one inquired if Bethlehem, where Christ was born, were not a town in

France!! Since they have no schools, and their knowledge is but

traditional, it is not surprising that they should remain thus

ignorant of geography and history. I can account for their

understanding the pure French language from the circumstance that they

are supplied with Catholic priests from the mother country, who of

course speak to them in that tongue. Those who visit Madawaska must

remember that no money passes current there but silver, for the people

do not know how to read, and will not take bank-notes, as they have

often been imposed upon, since they are unable to distinguish a L5

from a $5 or five shilling note. As there are no regular taverns in

this settlement, every family the traveler calls upon will furnish

accommodations, for which they expect a reasonable compensation, and

he will be always sure of kind treatment, which is beyond price. I

have been thus particular to speak of the Acadian settlers of

Madawaska, because little is generally known of their manners and

customs, many people having the idea that they are demi-savages,

because, like the aboriginal inhabitants, they live principally by

hunting."[24]

[24] Dr. Jackson's Geological Reports.

There are several important tributaries to the St. John's, and among

them mention may be made of the Aroostook, which, from its historical

associations with the boundary question between the States and Great

Britain, has become familiar to all. "This river is a broad and

beautiful stream, having a gradual descent, free from obstructions, so

that a raft may run to the falls at its confluence with the St.

John's," a distance of over one hundred miles. "Its bottom is composed

of pebbles for the principal part of its course, and there are a few

low islands in its midst." The soil varies on different sections of

the river as you pass down, sometimes being of a "chocolate brown" or

"yellow loam," the latter being in some places covered with "a black

vegetable mold several inches deep." The country around is covered

with a majestic grove, composed of towering Pines, Rock-maple, and the

various Birches, Spruce, Fir, &c. Where the attempt has been made, the

soil is found to be exceedingly productive. Its principal products are

square timber, hewn from the giant Pines found upon its borders, and

sugar, produced from the sap of the Rock-maple, magnificent groves of

which grow upon its banks. Beds of iron ore are found in its vicinity,

and in some places limestone abounds; 'and, from indications, it is

highly probable that beds of anthracite coal will, when necessity

shall prompt investigation, be found in its vicinity.' In an

agricultural point of view, it has been remarked, by competent judges,

that "there were never greater natural advantages offered to the

farmer than are to be found upon this river," and that it "will" in

time "become, as it is destined by nature to be, the granary of the

North."

[Illustration: AROOSTOOK FALLS, ON AROOSTOOK RIVER.]

Among the most interesting objects to be met are the Ox-bow and

Aroostook Falls. The former consists of a crook in the river, which

"forms a curvature of one mile, while the neck of land included

between the two portions of the curve is but twenty rods across, so

that it is customary for the Indians to carry their canoes over this

portage." The falls occur near its junction with the St. John's. "The

water is very rapid, and rushes over ledges of slate and limestone

rocks for three fourths of a mile." "Then the river precipitates

itself over a steep and broken ledge fifteen feet into a wide basin

below." In the rocks there are "pot-holes," "five feet in diameter and

four feet deep," "worn in the limestone by the grinding motion of

rounded stones moved by the impetuous current."

The reader will see in the cut a picturesque view of a section of this

beautiful water-fall, with its high ledges, overhung with a heavy

growth of cedar-trees. The country in the vicinity of the falls

"becomes more elevated, and lofty precipices of limestone and

calciferous slate rise on each bank of the river, while the country in

the rear is broken, hilly, and covered with an abundant mixed growth

of forest trees."

We next turn our attention to the "Mirimachi," one of the principal

rivers of the province, "which falls into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in

47 deg. 10' north latitude, 64 deg. 40' west longitude, forming at its estuary

a capacious bay, with several islands, and a ship channel for vessels

of seven hundred tons burden, and navigable upward of thirty miles

from the sea. Chatham, Douglass, and Newcastle are the principal

towns, situated on the banks of the river, about twenty-five miles

from its mouth. At these settlements upward of two hundred vessels

annually load with timber for Great Britain, &c. Seven miles above

Chatham the Mirimachi divides into two branches, one running southwest

and the other northwest. The southwest branch of the river contains

more water than the River Thames from London upward. The sea-coast of

Mirimachi is low, but inland the country rises in some places,

consisting of extensive and rich intervales, in others of a rugged,

rocky territory."

This river is particularly prominent, in the history of New Brunswick,

for the astonishing amount of ton timber which was formerly procured

from the territory bordering it, and as the scene of a bloody and

protracted riot on the part of the Irish population, chiefly

emigrants, who rose _en masse_, and attempted to drive the Americans,

who had flocked there in large numbers, from the country. Desperate

encounters took place from time to time between small parties, but the

Americans maintained their ground against fearful odds, and after the

lapse of a few months quiet and order again prevailed. But in a more

particular and impressive sense will the Mirimachi be remembered as

the scene of one of the "most terrible natural conflagrations of which

we have any record in the history of the world." The annexed

account[25] will be found deeply interesting.

[25] History of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

"The person who has never been out of Europe," and, we may add, out of

_our_ cities and older portions of country in the States, "can have

little conception of the fury and rapidity with which fires rage after

a continuation of hot seasons in North America and New Holland, when

the dry underwood and fallen leaves, in addition to the resinous

quality of the timber, afford combustible materials in the greatest

abundance. I have seen the side of a mountain thirty miles long

burning in New Holland, and illumining the sky for many miles; but the

following description by an eye-witness (Mr. Coony), of the great

Mirimachi fire, exceeds any thing of the kind that ever occurred."

"The summer of 1825 was unusually warm in both hemispheres,

particularly in America, where its effects were fatally visible in the

prevalence of epidemical disorders. During July and August, extensive

fires raged in different parts of Nova Scotia, especially in the

eastern division of the peninsula. The protracted drought of the

summer, acting upon the aridity of the forests, had rendered them more

than naturally combustible; and this, facilitating both the dispersion

and the progress of the fires that appeared in the early part of the

season, produced an unusual warmth. On the 6th of October, the fire

was evidently approaching New Castle; at different intervals fitful

blazes and flashes were observed to issue from different parts of the

woods, particularly up the northwest, at the rear of New Castle, in

the vicinity of Douglasstown and Moorfields, and along the banks of

the Bartibog. Many persons heard the crackling of falling trees and

shriveled branches, while a hoarse, rumbling noise, not dissimilar to

the roaring of distant thunder, and divided by pauses, like the

intermittent discharges of artillery, was distinct and audible. On the

7th of October the heat increased to such a degree, and became so very

oppressive, that many complained of its enervating effects. About

twelve o'clock, a pale, sickly mist, lightly tinged with purple,

emerged from the forest and settled over it.

"This cloud soon retreated before a large dark one, which, occupying

its place, wrapped the firmament in a pall of vapor. This encumbrance

retaining its position till about three o'clock, the heat became

tormentingly sultry. There was not a breath of air; the atmosphere was

overloaded; and irresistible lassitude seized the people. A stupefying

dullness seemed to pervade every place but the woods, which now

trembled, and rustled, and shook with an incessant and thrilling noise

of explosions, rapidly following each other, and mingling their

reports with a discordant variety of loud and boisterous sounds. At

this time the whole country appeared to be encircled by a _fiery

zone_, which, gradually contracting its circle by the devastation it

had made, seemed as if it would not converge into a point while any

thing remained to be destroyed. A little after four o'clock, an

immense pillar of smoke rose, in a vertical direction, at some

distance northwest of New Castle for a while, and the sky was

absolutely blackened by this huge cloud; but a light northerly breeze

springing up, it gradually distended, and then dissipated into a

variety of shapeless mists. About an hour after, or probably at half

past five, innumerable large spires of smoke, issuing from different

parts of the woods, and illuminated by flames that seemed to pierce

them, mounted the sky. A heavy and suffocating canopy, extending to

the utmost verge of observation, and appearing more terrific by the

vivid flashes and blazes that darted irregularly through it, now hung

over New Castle and Douglass in threatening suspension, while showers

of flaming brands, calcined leaves, ashes, and cinders seemed to

scream through the growling noise that prevailed in the woods. About

nine o'clock (P.M.), or shortly after, a succession of loud and

appalling roars thundered through the forests. Peal after peal, crash

after crash, announced the sentence of destruction. Every succeeding

shock created fresh alarm; every clap came loaded with its own

destructive energy. With greedy rapidity did the flames advance to the

devoted scene of their ministry; nothing could impede their progress.

They removed every obstacle by the desolation they occasioned, and

_several hundred miles of prostrate forests_ and smitten woods marked

their devastating way.

"The river, tortured into violence by the hurricane, foamed with rage,

and flung its boiling spray upon the land. The thunder pealed along

the vault of heaven--the lightning appeared to rend the firmament. For

a moment all was still, and a deep and awful silence reigned over

every thing. All nature appeared to be hushed, when suddenly a

lengthened and sullen roar came booming through the forests, driving a

thousand massive and devouring flames before it. Then New Castle and

Douglasstown, and the whole northern side of the river, extending from

Bartibog to the Naashwaak, a distance of more than one hundred miles

in length, became enveloped in an immense sheet of flame, that spread

over nearly _six thousand square miles_! That the stranger may form a

faint idea of the desolation and misery which no pen can describe, he

must picture to himself a large and rapid river, thickly settled for

one hundred miles or more on both sides of it. He must also fancy four

thriving towns, two on each side of this river, and then reflect that

these towns and settlements were all composed of wooden houses,

stores, stables, and barns; that these barns and stables were filled

with crops, and that the arrival of the fall importations had stocked

the warehouses and stores with spirits, powder, and a variety of

combustible articles, as well as with the necessary supplies for the

approaching winter. He must then remember that the cultivated or

settled part of the river is but a long, narrow strip, about a quarter

of a mile wide, lying between the river and almost interminable

forests, stretching along the very edge of its precincts and all

around it. Extending his conception, he will see the forests thickly

expanding over more than six thousand square miles, and absolutely

parched into tinder by the protracted heat of a long summer.

"Let him then animate the picture by scattering countless tribes of

wild animals, and hundreds of domestic ones, and even thousands of men

in the interior. Having done all this, he will have before him a

feeble outline of the extent, features, and general circumstances of

the country which, in the course of a few hours, was suddenly

enveloped in fire. A more ghastly or a more revolting picture of human

misery can not well be imagined.

"The whole district of cultivated land was shrouded in the agonizing

memorials of some dreadful deforming havoc. The songs of gladness that

formerly resounded through it were no longer heard, for the voice of

misery had hushed them. Nothing broke upon the ear but the accents of

distress; the eye saw nothing but ruin, and desolation, and death. New

Castle, yesterday a flourishing town, full of trade and spirit, and

containing nearly one thousand inhabitants, was now a heap of smoking

ruins; and Douglasstown, nearly one third of its size, was reduced to

the same miserable condition. Of the two hundred and sixty houses and

store-houses that composed the former, but twelve remained; and of the

seventy that comprised the latter, but six were left. The confusion on

board of one hundred and fifty large vessels, then lying in the

Mirimachi, and exposed to imminent danger, was terrible--some burned

to the water's edge, others burning, and the remainder occasionally on

fire.

"Dispersed groups of half-famished, half-naked, and houseless

creatures, all more or less injured in their persons, many lamenting

the loss of some property, or children, or relations and friends, were

wandering through the country. Of the human bodies, some were seen

with their bowels protruding, others with the flesh all consumed, and

the blackened skeletons smoking; some with headless trunks and severed

extremities; some bodies burned to cinders, others reduced to ashes;

many bloated and swollen by suffocation, and several lying in the last

distorted position of convulsing torture; brief and violent was their

passage from life to death, and rude and melancholy was their

sepulcher--'unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.' The immediate loss of

life was upward of five hundred beings! Thousands of wild beasts, too,

had perished in the woods, and from their putrescent carcasses issued

streams of effluvium and stench that formed contagious domes over the

dismantled settlements. Domestic animals of all kinds lay dead and

dying in different parts of the country. Myriads of salmon, trout,

bass, and other fish, which, poisoned by the alkali formed by the

ashes precipitated into the river, now lay dead or floundering and

gasping on the scorched shores and beaches, and the countless variety

of wild fowl and reptiles shared a similar fate."

Such was the violence of the hurricane, that large bodies of ignited

timber, and portions of the trunks of trees, and severed limbs, and

also parts of flaming buildings, shingles, boards, &c., were hurried

along through the frowning heavens with terrible velocity, outstripping

the fleetest horses, spreading destruction far in the advance, thus

cutting off retreat. The shrieks of the affrighted inhabitants mingling

with the discordant bellowing of cattle, the neighing of horses, the

howling of dogs, and the strange notes of distress and fright from

other domestic animals, strangely blending with the roar of the flames

and the thunder of the tornado, beggars description.

Their only means of safety was the river, to which there was a

simultaneous rush, seizing whatever was buoyant, however inadequate;

many attempted to effect a crossing; some succeeded; others failed,

and were drowned. One woman actually seized an ox by the tail just as

he plunged into the river, and was safely towed to the opposite shore.

Those who were unable to make their escape across plunged into the

water to their necks, and, by a constant application of water to the

head while in this submerged condition, escaped the dreadful burning.

In some portions of the country the cattle were nearly all destroyed.

Whole crews of men, camping in the interior, and engaged in

timber-making, were consumed.

Such was the awful conflagration of 1825 on the Mirimachi.

This event, of course, put a great check upon the lumbering

operations of that section; but since that period, the places named,

"phoenix-like, have risen from their ashes finer towns than they were

before the period of that terrific conflagration." Hundreds of

shipping annually load with lumber, which is exported to the mother

country.

The next considerable river in this region is the Ristigouche, larger

than the Mirimachi, "two hundred and twenty miles long." "The

entrance to this river is about three miles wide, formed by two high

promontories of red sandstone." "For eighteen miles up this river,

one continuous, safe, and commodious harbor for the largest class of

ships is found." "Two hundred miles from its embouchure, whither the

tide flows, it is upward of a mile wide; and from thence to within

forty miles of its source it is navigable for barges and canoes."

"The appearance of the country" on this river "is exceedingly grand

and impressive; wherever the eye wanders, nothing is to be seen but

an immeasurable dispersion of gigantic hills, with an infinite number

of lakes and streams, glens and valleys. Some of the mountains are

clothed with the tall and beautiful Pine; others sustain a fine

growth of hard-wood; many have swampy summits, and several terminate

in rich meadows and plains; in form some are conical, others exhibit

considerable rotundity, many lank and attenuated, and not a few of

most grotesque shapes. Sometimes the precipitous banks of the river

are three hundred feet above its bed. Seventy miles from the sea the

country becomes comparatively level, and all the way to the head of

the Ristigouche is a fine, bold, open territory, consisting of a rich

upland, skirted with large tracks of intervale, and covered with a

dense and unviolated growth of mixed wood, in which large groves of

Pine are very conspicuous." On this river the Pine is said to be of a

very superior quality.

Other rivers might be named of no ordinary interest and capacity.

The following table gives an account of the lumbering installments and

products of New Brunswick, as taken from the "History of Nova Scotia,

Cape Breton," &c., &c.:

Column A = Establishments for sawing, &c.

+--------------+----+-------------+-----------+----------+---------+

| | |Estimated | | |Number of|

| | |value of | | |men |

| | |all mills, |Estimated |Estimated |employed |

| | |including all|quantity of|value of |in |

| | |improvements:|lumber |lumber |logging, |

| COUNTIES | A |viz., |sawed at |sawed and |sawing, |

| | |privilege, |the mills |carried to|and |

| | |site, |during the |places of |bringing |

| | |sluices, |year. |shipment. |to |

| | |land, dams | | |places of|

| | |and piers. | | |shipment.|

+--------------+----+-------------+-----------+----------+---------+

| | | L. | Feet. | L. | |

|St. John's | 29 | 31,700 | 11,305,000| 28,262 | 320 |

|King's | 30 | 14,800 | 3,905,000| 9,785 | 287 |

|Gloucester | 7 | 15,500 | 2,920,000| 6,050 | 105 |

|Westmoreland. | 53 | 18,530 | 8,805,000| 22,012 | 324 |

|Kent | 10 | 6,950 | 2,650,000| 6,575 | 84 |

|Northumberland| 15 | 44,350 | 15,600,000| 39,800 | 800 |

|Sudbury | 7 | 8,500 | 4,500,000| 11,250 | 103 |

|Queen's | 6 | 9,200 | 6,200,000| 15,500 | 118 |

|Charlotte | 42 | 64,500 | 38,955,000| 99,475 | 1,357 |

|York | 29 | 18,000 | 9,000,000| 22,500 | 300 |

| +----+-------------+-----------+----------+---------+

| Grand Total |228 | 232,030 |103,840,000| 261,210 | 3,792 |

+--------------+----+-------------+-----------+----------+---------+

To this amount of manufactured lumber may be added about two hundred

and fifty thousand tons of square timber; this is not far from the

annual amount manufactured in this province. Four dollars per ton is

about a medium price; this gives a product of $1,000,000. To this we

may add, as the product of masts, staves, shingles, per annum,

$20,000.[26]

[26] Having no data upon which to form an estimate of the

amount of these products, we simply give this result as

problematical. It probably falls short very far of the true

annual value.

Grand total of the lumbering produce in dollars, reckoning four

dollars to the pound:

Long lumber $1,041,840

Square timber 1,000,000

Other lumber as above 20,000

---------

$2,061,840.

THE END.