USA > Maine > The history of the state of Maine; from its first discovery, A. D. 1602, to the separation, A. D. 1820, inclusive, Vol. I > Part 10
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As the tide rises there from 24 to 28 feet, varying according to the phases of the moon, they are passable at half flood for a short time, when the waters over the falls are smooth. The city,* situated on both sides of the river, below the falls, is prin- cipally on a peninsula of the eastern shore. But the site of old Fort Frederic was on the western side. Patridge Island lies at the entrance of the harbour, on which there is a Lighthouse, and from which, to the western shore, there is a sand bar.
* In lat. 45 deg. 20m. north, and has 8,488 inhabitants. VOL. I. 7
Metawascah
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THE MOUNTAINS
[INTRODUC.
In view of the matter in this section, and a careful inspection of a Map of Maine, it is almost superfluous to say, that perhaps no other seaboard of equal extent can be found so lined with Islands, and so highly favoured with coves and harbours; and that no other country, of the same size, is so interspersed with rivers, streams and ponds .* It may also be added, that the in- land waters are fair and salubrious, and many of them are ex- ceedingly limpid.
MOUNTAINS.
MOUN- TAINS. Mount Katahdin. Situation.
OF the mountains in this State, the first for magnitude and height, is the Katahdin ;t there being none higher in New-Eng- land, except the White hills in New-Hampshire.
The local situation of the Katahdin is about seventy miles, north by west, from the head of the tide in Penobscot river, and about equidistant between its east and west branches. It is the southernmost and highest of nine lofty ridges, branching out northwest and northeast ; which, however, are easily overlooked from the more elevated summit of this single one.
Table- lands.
Around it, except on the north side, are table-lands, about three miles in width, rising in gentle acclivity to its base. These were once covered with forest trees. In the parts near the de- scending streams, where the soil is good, the growths were for- merly hardwood ; but elsewhere the ground was clothed with spruce. Viewed from the heights of the mountain, these table- lands appear like a plain, while in fact, they overlook the sur- rounding wilderness to a very great extent.
Prior to the year 1816, the ascent was on the west or south- west end, equal to the hypotenuse of an angle, generally from 35° to 46° with the horizon, ragged, difficult, and fatiguing ; and the distance from the upper margin of the table-lands was not less than two miles, in direct course, to the summit, though the tract travelled was somewhat spiral and zigzag. But sometime
* Twelve Mile pond, 7 miles long and more than half a mile wide, ad- joining China ; 1000 acre pond in Dexter; Moose pond in Hartford ; 2000 acre pond in Madison ; Great east pond, of 4,500 acres, in Newport, and numerous others.
t Spelt " Katahdin," " Ktardn," Ktahden," -- the vowel in the last syl lable having no sound.
A great slide.
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in that year, an enormous declivity, about mid-side the mountain, Katahdin. slid into a distant valley-apparently the effect of an overwhelm- ing fall of water. In its descent it rent away every obstacle, tearing up trees by the roots, or crushing or twisting them like a withe ;- an event, however, which has rendered the ascent, in one of its difficult places, altogether more tolerable, and in others more easy.
The circumference of the mountain at its base, which is north- Base, sides, erly and southerly elliptical, may be ten or twelve miles. The and soils. surface of its sides is covered with small light-gray rocks of granite, apparently broken and split, as if by force, into a thousand different forms. In many places these innumerable crumbles form the principal component and consistency of the soil, which, with the rocks, are covered by a deep-green moss. Under this, the trees of various kind stake root ; which, as we ascend, are short- er and shorter, until they become mere dwarfs, towards the sum- mit, of only two feet tall, with very long limbs and trunks six inches in diameter at the ground. About a mile from the top, all vegetation ceases, the uppermost of which is a kind of vine. Here the large and the pebble rocks are of a finer grain, or con- texture, than those lower down and are of a bluish colour.
Some years ago a fire from the vallies swept up the mountain, Fires. on the southern and eastern sides, and rendered that section and other places, black-burnt and quite barren, except about the springs and streams, where vegetation has reset. At no time, however, could these sides be ascended, by reason of their pro- jecting cliffs and great steepness.
The summit of the Katahdin is a plain, inclining partially to Summit. the northwestward, and formed of solid rock. The western part is very smooth, the rest more rough and broken, and the inter- stices filled with coarse gravel. Its area, which is a full half mile in length, but much less in width, contains about 800 acres, all covered with a dead white moss.
As this is the highest of the mountains in our horizon, the pros- pect from its top in a clear day is, what might be supposed, vast and enchanting. Here the beholder sees the great reservoir of the river Aroostic ; also the Moosehead lake, except its central parts, hidden by the Piscatequis mountain intervening; and the glassy Cheesauncook lake, still nearer, one of the great cisterns of the Penobscot. Indeed, no less than 60 lakes, of different
Prospect.
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[INTRODUC.
dimensions, can be counted ; the most of which, probably, empty their waters into the Penobscot and the Kennebec.
On the northeast is an uninterrupted prospect as far as the eye can reach, until it rests on the distant highlands west of the bay Chaleur. This region exhibits an undulating forest of hills and vallies, interspersed with lakes and streams. Facing the south the spectator beholds from Katahdin the heights of Mount Desert, distant on an air line, more than 120 miles, and appearing to rise in semi-globular form from the bosom of the ocean.
Fort moun- tain.
Near the Katahdin, north-northwest, is Fort mountain, so called from its shape and appearance. It is separated from the other by an appalling gully, where a small pond gives its waters to the great east branch. Its form is oblong, from northeast to southwest : its sides are steep and its top is an arching ridge, ex- hibiting a sharp edge, a mile in length, and apparently covered with verdure. There is another northerly, called Bright moun- tain, quite large in size and irregular in appearance, having an extensive ledge of smooth rocks on its southern side, which glist- en in the sunbeams like isinglass.
Bright mountain.
Indian tradition.
The Indians feared till lately to visit the summit of the Ka- tahdin. They superstitiously supposed it to be the summer resi- dence of an evil spirit, called by them " Pambla ;"* who in the beginning of snow-time, rose with a great noise, and took his flight to some unknown warmer regions. They tell a story, that seven Indians, a great many moons ago, too boldly went up the mountain and were certainly killed by the mighty Pamola : for, say they, " we never hear of them more :" and our fathers told us, " an Indian never goes up to the top of the Katahdin and lives to return."
The moun- tain visited in 1804.
The first ascent to its summit, known to be accomplished by any Americans, was in August, 1804. About the middle of that month seven gentlemen, from Bangor and Orono, taking two In- dians for guides, ascended the Penobscot in canoes to the head of boat-navigation, in a limped stream, which received its princi- pal supplies from the sides of the mountain and a gully towards its top.
* They say that Pamola is very great and very strong indeed; that his head and face is like a man's, and his body, shape and feet like an cagle, and that he can take up a moose with one of his claws.
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The Indian guides cautioned their employers not to proceed, if Indian they " should hear any uncommon noises;" and refused to go ahead when they " came to the cold and barren part of the mountain." At length they resolved to go no farther, saying, "here we stop; how long shall we stay if you don't come again ?" Being told by the party-they should soon return; and seeing their determination to proceed, the guides again took the lead and seemed emulous to be the first to reach the summit. Yet the tribe at Oldtown could only be made to believe by the guides themselves, on their return, that the party had actually been to the summit, where the evil spirit resided.
The party, after leaving their boats, found as they ascended, Wild fruits. a variety of wild fruits, such as raspberries, blue, and wortleber- ries, black currants, box-berries and bog-cranberries, of which they ate freely. The ascent was fatiguing, and in some places perilous ; and they being oppressed with heat, drank too much of the water, which they perceived had an astringent quality, and was evidently impregnated with minerals.
They reached the summit about 5, P. M. ; but the atmosphere The party's not being clear, they tarried only a couple of hours, taking such view. views as the uncommon prospect afforded. They found the ele- vation so great as evidently to affect respiration. On the highest part, they deposited the initials of their names and the date of their visit, cut upon sheet lead ; and then descended to the spruce growth, where they passed the night. In a few hours several were taken with vomiting, and in the morning all found their throats inflamed and sore-owing probably to the fruits, the water, and the fatigue. The mountain has been since visited ; and the water found to be perfectly wholesome ;- the thoroughfare opened by the slide, affording great facilities to the ascent of the traveller.
The adventurers supposed the mountain must be at least ten Altitude of thousand feet, (or equal to the White hills,) above the level of the summit. the sea. But they were in an errour; for by a geometrical men- suration of the surveyors under the 4th article of the treaty of Ghent, they made its altitude, from the bed of the river Abala- jacko-megus* at its foot, to be only 4,685 feet. The instrument
* Below this river, they calculated the Passadumkeag to be 500 feet, and the tide-waters of Penobscot 650 feet.
guides.
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[INTRODUC.
however was out of order, and the admeasurement not satisfacto- ry. Some views have been since taken, and casts made by a skilful gentleman,* who gives it as his opinion, that it is at least 5,500 feet in height above the waters of that river.t
Westerly, between Moosehead lake and Cheesauncook lake, Mountains. are the Spencer mountains-several in number, large and lofty ; Spencer and the road explored from Pleasant river, and the Piscatequis, to the river de Loup, in Canada, passes between the two south- erly and principal summits.}
Bald moun- tain.
On the west of Moosehead lake, and near the heads of Moose river, and on the east side of the Kennebec road, is Bald moun- tain,. five miles long, two wide, and quite high. Below this, and ten miles above the forks, on the west side of that road, are the Johnson mountains, where is an immense body of limestone, and probably a quarry of marble.
Johnson mountains.
Mars hill.
Mars Hill, 40 miles above the monument, is on the east mar- gin of the State. Its ascent commences with an easy swell of half a mile in width, and between this and the summit abruptly increases, in some places almost to a perpendicular steepness. Its top is narrow and divided by a hollow near the centre; on each end of which the trees were felled, a spot cleared, and a temporary observatory erected by the commissioners under the treaty of Ghent. By their astronomers and surveyors, it was as- certained that the south peak is 1519 feet, and the north one 1,378 feet, above the tide-waters of the St. Lawrence; being the highest land between them and those of the Atlantic.
Height.
Mars hill is itself covered with trees, and might be made fit pasture lands to its top, which is in lat. 46° 30'. The British Commissioner insists that this is the height of land intended by the treaty of 1783; and adds, that " the existence of a chain of
* Gen. Joseph Treat, supposes Katahdin is about as high as the White hills. M. Greenleaf, Esq. computes the height of the Katahdin at 5,623 fect .- Survey, p. 47.
t The highest summit of the White hills, N. H., is 5,850 feet above the water in Connecticut river .- 2 Farmer and Moore's Coll. 98.
# The mountains behind the Onelle, 24 miles N. W. from Quebec, are distinctly visible and are followed by the eye without interruption, to the highlands, between the sources of the St. Jolin, Penobscot, Kennebec, Connecticut, and Etechemain, Chaudiere, Becancour, and the Nicolet rivers, The ridge must be 2,000 feet above the sea .- Greenleaf.
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highlands from Mars hill, or its neighbourhood, towards Katahdin, and thence to the head of Connecticut river, is certain."*
Mount Desert heights, not having any mountainous elevations Mount Desert near them, appear environed by water, on the verge of the Atlan- heights. tic. There are thirteen grades and ridges of them in connexion, which give some varieties to the appearances of their summits. The area upon which they rest their whole base, may be equal to twenty square miles : and their altitude above the sea is estimated at 2,500 feet .; They may be seen more than twenty leagues at sea.
Northwestwardly, between Mount Desert and the Penobscot waters, is Blue hill. This affords a very engaging prospect, and Blue hill. gives name to the town where it is situate and to the bay south- eastwardly, because of its blue or smoky appearance. It is crown- ed with granite rocks.
Camden mountains, or heights,t heretofore called Penobscot Camden hills, are about ten miles, over land, northwesterly from Mecada- cut, or Owl's head, and their tops are from three fourths of a mile to four miles distant from Megunticook harbour and Camden vil- lage. There are five or six of them, the principal of which are Mount Batty, Mount Pleasant, and Mount Hosmer : they range generally from northeast to southwest, somewhat diverging from the sea, and are clothed with forest trees quite to their tops. The most of them are neither steep nor rugged. Mount Batty, 3-4ths of a mile N. W. from Camden harbour, is 900 feet in height above highwater mark ; and on its summit an 18 pounder was planted in the late war. These have been represented as the old boundary between the great Bashaba's dominions, situate on the west, and those of the Tarratines on the east. They are, with- out doubt, the mountains mentioned by Capt. Weymouth, in 1605, and by Capt. Smith, in 1614, when they explored the bay of Penobscot. Mount Pleasant, in the W., Hosmer's mountains in the N. W. and two others in the N. E. part of Camden, are much higher than Mount Batty ;" the highest of them may be 1,500 feet above the level of the sea. They are seen near 20 leagues distant.
* See his Report in Secretary's office, Washington.
+ MS. Letter of A. Johnson, Esq.
# " Mathebestucks hills." See A. D. 1696, History. Also, Penhallow's Indian wars. Church Ex., &c. 141-2.
mountains:
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THE MOUNTAINS OF MAINE.
[INTRODUC.
Certain it is that no other place affords so commanding a pros- pect of the Atlantic, the Penobscot bay, the numerous Islands and the contiguous country .*
Mount Aga- menticus. Mount Agamenticust has been long celebrated as a sightly eminence. Its situation is in the town of York, about eight miles northwesterly of its harbour, and nearly on the same meridian with that of Piscataqua. It is not steep, rocky, nor broken. It is covered with woods and shrubs, interspersed with small patches of pasture, and large crowning rocks, which form its summit. It is a noted landmark for mariners, being the first height seen by First discov- them from the sea. This is supposed to have been the land first ered. discovered by Capt. Gosnold, in 1602.
The pros- pect.
From its top, the beholder has a view of the Atlantic, skirted with an indented shore, from Cape-Ann to Cape-Elizabeth. On the southwest, he sees a country adorned with buildings, fields of cultivation, and the waters of Piscataqua ; and northwestwardly, he has a sight of the White hills, in New-Hampshire.
Mount Bigelow. Mount Bigelow is south of Dead river, about three leagues long, from east to west, and one league wide. Here is said to be a great quarry of gray stone, very excellent for the builder's use. The other mountains in this quarter, are Saddleback, Speckled, and White-cap mountains, and Mount Abraham, some of which Sugar loaf. are said to be 4,000 feet above the sea. Sugar Loaf, south- Kinco. west, is smaller. Kineot mountain is a peninsula on the east side of Moosehead lake, a few miles southwest of the Spencer moun- tains. It is 4 miles in circumference and 900 feet high,-com- posed of fine grained flint. Its northern and eastern sides, are perpendicular, and it is almost without so much as a shrub on many of its parts.§
Viewing the surface of Maine collectively, we shall perceive " its most elevated part is near its northwestern angle," perhaps Sunday mountain, " from which it declines with some degree of regularity, in every direction, to the extreme parts."Il
* MS. Letters of Hosea Bates and Benjamin Cushing, Esqrs. and Plan.
+ Sometimes spelt " Accomenticus."
# Kineo is the Indian name for flint.
{ " Immediately at the foot of this mountain. a line 5 or 600 feet has been thrown without getting bottom." It is about 120 miles from Augusta, north by cast.
" Greenleaf's Statistical View, 15.
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THE SOILS OF MAINE.
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SOILS.
The varieties of soil in this State, are such as to embrace inter- SOILS. vale, loam, clay, gravel, sand, and ledge; and these are some- times intermixed.
Along the seaboard, there is interspersed among the promon- On the sea- tories and vallies, a great deal of ledge, exhibiting bluffs, flat and board. rugged rocks, and supporting in their crevices a half-starved shrub- bery,-a spectacle often repulsive to the view of the water-passen- ger and visitant.
From the ledgy and clayey parts to the head of the tide, on About the the rivers and about the estuaries, the land generally lies in large swells and is of a clay contexure, with interspersions of sand. On the high grounds, between the principal rivers, it is loamy, fertile, easy of tillage in many towns, and excellent for farms.
There are large Salt marshes in Wells, Scarborough, Fal-
tide-waters.
Salt marsh mouth, and Machias, about the Islands of Sagadahock, and about es. Mount Desert, where great quantities of salt-hay are annually cut, which, with that of the upland and fresh meadows, make exceed- ingly good fodder. In other parts the soil is of a black loam, or dark mould, with hillocks of gravel and some slate, as in Cape- Elizabeth and Harpswell. Indeed, through the whole extent of the State, in rear of the ledge-land, the soil is generally fertile.
There are to be found many Cedar swamps, scattered about Cedar the heads and among the branches of the rivers and brooks ; the most of which are capable of making good meadows and mowing grounds; and cedar affords the best fencing stuff which can be made of wood.
Our Sandy plains, the natural growth of which is pitch and white Sandy pine, are oftentimes large. They are found in Wells, in Bruns- plains. wick, in Topsham, in Gray, and in many other places ; but to what extent, the writer has no satisfactory information-except that he is told there are no less than 6,000 acres of pitch-pine plains in the single town of Shapleigh.
Our richest, most productive and valuable lands are the Inter- Intervales. vales. Of these, we have many thousand acres, which are generally found to be some distance above the tide-waters ; and in wider and narrower parcels, to skirt almost every considerable river and stream in the State. There are intervales on the Saco and its branches, especially in Fryeburg ; on the Androscoggin,
Swamps.
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THE CLIMATE
[INTRODUC.
from Gilead, where the river enters this State, to Lewiston falls ; and on the Kennebec and its tributaries, between Scowhegan falls and the Forks. Indeed, the single town of Farmington, is said to contain no less than 2,000 acres of this most beautiful and fertile land. In Sunkhaze, Olemon, and other places on the Pe- nobscot, the meadows are very extensive, and bear large and ex- cellent grass.
Northeast- ern region.
The country about the easterly heads and upper branches of the Penobscot, the whole Aroostic, and the southern primary branches of the St. John, is naturally very excellent. The soil is a deep rich loam ; the face of the ground variegated with swells and vallies ; and the whole region favoured with abundant sup- plies of purest water. To emigrants, it has strong attractives ; it is filling with people, and is capable of supporting a dense population.
SECTION III.
Air, Climate, and Seasons.
The air.
THE air of this State is pure and salubrious ; and the weather not much given to changes. It is believed that the atmosphere here is more humid and dense than in southern climates, as the dews of summer are certainly greater. For the most part, the air in winter is serene, elastic, bracing, and not unfrequently keen ; in spring transparent and humid; in the summer, often sultry and electric ; and in the autumn sometimes full of smoke.
Tempera- ture.
But as the territory of this State extends through five degrees of latitude; and as the characteristics of the climate here, as elsewhere, always depend in a great measure upon its situation from the equator, the temperature of our climate must have some varieties. It is unquestionably softened by seabreezes, and by the cultivation of the country ; and is chilled by its being con- tiguous to mountains, or even to a thick unbroken wilderness. For upon these, which are never charged with the beams and heat of the summer's sun, the snow falls earlier and lies longer, than in cultivated fields.
Winds* here are not often high and destructive, and a hurri-
Winds.
* The prevailing winds throughout the whole coast of Nova Scotia, are from W. S. W. to S. W. " nearly as steady as trade winds," except during summer months, when they are rather more southerly, accompanied with fogs, which are hardly dispersed without northerly winds.
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cane is very seldom experienced. The southerly winds are the most violent ; and between that point of compass and the N. E., they, after blowing 24 hours, usually bring a storm which lasts several days, and always longer than when it comes from any other quarter. Those from the southwest mitigate the severity of winter, and often render sultry the days of summer : But fair weather, and sometimes a thundershower, come with the winds from the northwest. In New-Brunswick the prevailing winds, from October to April, are from the north and northwest ; and in the spring, they are mostly from the north-northeast, and bring dull and heavy weather.
The water which falls annually on an average, in rain, snow, Rain, snow, and hail, is said to be thirty-seven inches : about a third part of and hail. which is supposed to fall in the two latter. Hail, however, rarely falls in considerable quantities ; yet in June, 1781, a hail storm did some damage. A southeast storm, though it begin with snow, commonly ends in rain.
Thunder is heard and lightning seen many times in the sum-
Thunder mer ; still, the one is not often heavy, nor the other vivid. They and light- however rendered the seasons in 1752 and 1760, remarkable by ning. their frequency. On the 12th of August, of the latter year, there was such a hurricane as was never before known in these parts : houses, barns, trees, corn, and almost every other thing bleakly exposed, were levelled with the ground. The tempest in May, 1779, was a tornado; the darkness was only intermitted by incessant lightning : it did immense damage.
Freshets, larger or smaller, happen every year, and usually in Freshets. the month of May, oftentimes earlier. The double occasion of falling rains and melting snows, makes them the greatest. In times of these freshets and floods, the waters in the rivers have been known to rise 20 and even 25 feet; when they occasion great destruction.
But droughts are the most frequent, and on the whole, the Droughts greatest judgments which the country experiences, for many times and fires. they are followed by fires, by devouring insects, by sickness, and by scarcity. The fires, after droughts in 1820 and 1825, were extensive and dreadful.
It is believed that in more than half the days of the year we have fair weather and enjoy the shinings of the sun. But the year
Weather.
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THE SEASONS
[INTRODUC.
1772 was very stormy ; it was even judged that a quarter, at least, of the spring, summer, and autumn, was actually rainy.
The sea- sons.
The four seasons* are far from being uniformly the same in every year : yet for the natural causes of these varieties, philoso- phers have never been able to assign any satisfactory reasons.
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