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LIBRARY of CONGRESS
Two Cooles Received
APN 22 1907
Veoyrtffttt Entry
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TO THOSE SEEKING REST. RECREATION.
HEALTH, SPORT WITH ROD OR GUN.
OR TO LIVE CLOSE TO AND TO STUDY
NATURE IN ITS PRIMITIVE STATE.
THIS BOOKLET IS DEDICATED
Copyriglitfd iy07 by C. C. Garland
INTRODUCTION
Pages 5 to 3 1 of this booklet is an excerpt from " Ktaadn " and " The
Maine Woods," published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and written by
Henry David Thoreau, who visited Mt. Ktaadn (Katahdin) in August,
1 846, and whose description of that trip was first published in 1 848.
Thoreau, a close observer of nature and a writer of fine English diction
and whose works become more and more valued as literary productions, was
one of that eminent group of writers of his day, among whom are William
Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendall Holmes, James
Russell Lowell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Richard Henry
Dana, George William Curtis and William Ellery Channing, most of whom
were his close, personal friends.
This excerpt only treats of that portion of Thoreau's Ktaadn trip com-
mencing at Ambajejus Lake, to the top of the mountain, and back to the
West Branch of the Penobscot, on his return journey. It is over a portion of
this route that one journeys in visiting Debsconeag. The means of transporta-
tion are much easier, quicker and cheaper today than were those of Thoreau's
time, yet the grandeur of scenery and the wildness of the country remain
about the same.
Pages 33 to 40 of this booklet treat of the Debsconeag Outing Camps
at Debsconeag, Ktaadn, Rainbow Lake and Hurd Pond, all located in the
famous Ktaadn region. Full information giving particulars " how to get there,"
rates of board, transportation and all other desired informatian will be found in
these pages.
3
Mt. Ktaadn
IS .situitcd in Pistatacjuis County, between the West and East branch of the
Penobscot l^ivcr, in the heart of Maine's unbroken wilderness. Unlike most
large mountain peaks, Ktaadn stands alone; a view from it being unobstructed
by other \\\v,\\ mount, uns. Many persons who have (limbed most of the
high mountains of the world say that Ktaadn is not only the most interesting,
but that a finer and more extended view can be obtained from it than from
any other mountain on this continent, if not m the world. For a more minute
descri()tion read what I horeau says of it herein.
The easiest, quickest, best and cheapest way to get to Ktaadn, is to
make Debsconeag your starting [)oint and to have our Mr. C. C. Garland,
make all arrangements for you. (See Page 37.)
Illustrations.
No picture can do justice to these camps, it being practically impossible
to take good photographs of them, owing to their high location. The camps
and scenery about them must be seen to be appreciated.
DEBSCONEAG FALLS
"Ktaadn" by Thoreau
" In the next nine miles, which were the extent of our voyage, and which
it took us the rest of the day to get over, we rowed across several small lakes,
poled up numerous rapids and thoroughfares, and carried over four portages.
I will give the names and distances, for the benefit of future tourists. First,
after leaving Ambejijis Lake, we had a quarter of a mile of rapids to the
portage, or carry of ninety rods around Ambejijis Falls; then a mile and a
half through Passamagamet Lake, which is narrow and river-like, to the falls
of the same name, — Ambejijis stream coming in on the right; then two
miles through Katepskonegan Lake to the portage of ninety rods around
Katepskonegan Falls, which name signifies " carrying-place,"— Passamagamet
stream coming in on the left ; then three miles through Pockwockomus Lake,
a slight expansion of the river, to the portage of forty rods around the falls of
the same name,— Katepskonegan stream coming in on the left; then three
quarters of a mile through Aboljacarmegus Lake, similar to the last, to the
portage of forty rods around the falls of the same name ; then half a mile of
rapid water to the Sowadnehunk dead-water, and the Aboljacknagesic stream.
This is generally the order of names as you ascend the river : First, the
lake, or, if there is no expansion, the dead-water ; then the falls ; then the
stream emptying into the lake, or river above, all of the same name. First we
came to Passamagamet Lake, then to Passamagamet Falls, then to Passa-
magamet stream, emptying in. This order and identity of names, it will be
perceived, is quite philosophical, since the dead-water or lake is always at
least partially produced by the stream emptying in above; and the first fall
below, which is the outlet of that lake, and where that tributary water makes
its first plunge, also naturally bears the same name.
At the portage around Ambejijis Falls I observed a pork barrel on the
shore, with a hole eight or nine inches square cut in one side, which was set
against an upright rock ; but the bears, without turning or upsetting the barrel,
Editor's Nutk:- Since Thoreau's time the spelling has been changed of many of
the Indian names, which he enumerates. ,^,
Katepskonegan has been corrupted into the word Debsconeag.
Ka epskonegan lake as herein mentioned is now known as Debsconeag dead-water .
Katet^skot egan fa Is, as Debsc.meag falls: Passamagamet lake, as Passamagamet dead-
wa e?; I'ockwockomus lake, as Pockwockomus dead-water .A ...Ijacknagesicstreani, as
Abol stream; .aboljacarmegus lake, as Abol dead-water; Aboljacarmegus falls, as Abol
falls ; atjd IVturch brook (see page 13) as Katahdm stream.
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had gnawed a hole in the opposite side, which looked exactly hke an enor-
mous rat-hole, big enough to put their heads in; and at the bottom of the
barrel were still left a few mangled and slabbered slices of pork It is usual
for the lumberers to leave such supplies as they cannot conveniently carry along
with them at carries or camps, to which the next comers do not scruple to
help themselves, they being the property commonly, not of an individual, but a
company, who can afford to deal liberally.
1 will describe particularly how we got over some of these portages and
rapids in order that the reader may get an idea of the boatman s life. At
Ambe,i,is Falls, for mstance, there was the roughest path imaginable, cut
through the woods; at f^rst uphill, at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees,
over rocks and logs without end. This was the manner of the portage. We
(\rst carried over our baggage, and deposited it on the shore at the other end;
then, returning to the batteau, we dragged it up the h.ll by the painter, and
onward, with frequent pauses, over half the portage. But this was a bunglmg
way and would soon have worn out the boat. Commonly, three men walk
over with a batteau weighing from three to five or six hundred pounds on
their heads and shoulders, the tallest standing under the middle of the boat,
which IS turned over, and one at each end, or else there are two at the bows
More cannot well take hold at once. But this requires some practice, as well
as strength, and is in any case extremely laborious, and wearing to the consti-
tution, to follow. We were, on the whole, rather an invalid party and could
render our boatmen but little assistance. Our two men at length took the
batteau upon their shoulders, and, while two of us steadied it, to prevent it
from rocking and wearing into their shoulders, on which they placed their
hats folded, walked bravely over the remaining distance, with two or three
pauses. In the same manner they accomplished the other portages. With
this crushing weight they must climb and stumble along over fallen trees and
slippery rocks of all sizes, where those who walked by the sides were contin-
ually brushed off, such was the narrowness of the path. But we were fortun-
ate not to have to cut our path in the first place. Before we launched our
boat, we scraped the bottom smooth agam, with our knives, where it had
rubbed on the rocks, to save friction. • , -
To avoid the difficulties of the portage, our men determmed to warp
up" the Passamagamet Falls; so while the rest walked over the portage with
the baggage, I remamed in the batteau, to assist in warping up. We were
in the midst of the rapids, which were more swift and tumultuous than
soon
any we had poled up, and had turned to the side of the stream for the pur-
pose of warping, when the hoalmen, who felt some pride in their skill, and
were ambitious to do something more than usual, for my benefit, as I surmised,
took one more view of the rapids, or rather the falls; and, in answer to our
question, whether we couldn't get up there, the other answered that he
guessed he'd trv it. So we pushed again into tlic midst of the streim, and
began to slruE;gle with the current. 1 sat m the middle of the boat to trim it,
moving slightly to the right or left as it grazed a rock. With an uncertain and
wavering motion we wound and bolted our way up, until the bow was actually
raised two feet above the stern at the steepest pitch ; and then, when every-
thing depended upon his exertions, the bowman's pole snapped in two ; but
before he had time to take the spare one, which 1 reached him, he had saved
himself with the fragment u{)on a rock ; and so we got up by a hair's breadth;
and Uncle George e.xclaimed that that was never done before, and he had
not tried it if he had not known whom he had got in the bow, nor he in the
bow. if he had not known him in the stern. At this place there was a regu-
lar portage cut through the woods, and our boatmen had never known a
batteau to ascend the falls. As near as 1 can remember, there was a perpen-
dicular fall here, at the worst place of the whole Penobscot River, two or
three feet at least. 1 could not sufficiently admire the skill and coolness with
which they performed this feat, never speaking to each other. The bowman,
not looking Ijehind, but knowing exactly what the other is about, works as if he
worked alone. Now sounding in vain for a bottom in fifteen feet of water,
while the boat falls back several rods, held straight only with the greatest
skill and exertion ; or, while the sternman obstinately holds his ground, like a
turtle, the bowman springs from side to side with wonderful suppleness and
dexterity, scanning the rapids and the rocks with a thousand eyes ; and now,
having got a fjite at last, with a lusty shove, which makes his pole bend and
(juiver, and the whole boat tremble, he gains a few feet upon the river. To
i\d(\ ti) llir danger, the poles are liable at any time to be caught between the
rocks, and wrenched out of their hands, leaving them at the mercy of the
rapids, the rocks, as it were, lying in wait, like so many alligators, to catch
tlwin 111 llirir teeth, and jerk them from your hands, before you have stolen an
eflectual shove against their palates. f he pole is set close to the boat, and
the prow is made to overshoot, and just turn the corners of the rocks, in the
verv ti<th of llic rapids. Nothing but the length and lightness, and the slight
drauv-'lit <i| ihi- baltcau, enables titrm to make anv headwav. The bowman
must (juickly choose liis course; lliere is no time to deliberate- Frequently
the boat is shoved between rocks where both sides touch, and the waters on
either hand are a perfect maelstrom.
Half a mile above this two of us tried our hands at poling up a slight
rapid ; and we were just surmounting the last difficulty, when an unlucky rock
confronted our calculations ; and while the batteau was sweeping round
irrecoverably amid the whirlpool, we were obliged to resign the poles to more
skillful hands.
Katepskonegan is one of the shallowest and weediest of the lakes, and
looked as if it might abound in pickerel. I he falls of the same name, where
we stopped to dine, are considerable and quite picturesque. Here Uncle
George had seen trout caught by the barrelful ; but they would not rise to our
bait at this hour. Half-way over this carry, thus far in the Maine wilderness
on its way to the Provinces, we noticed a large, flaming, Oak Hall hand-bill,
about two feet long, wrapped round the trunk of a pine, from which the bark
had been stripped, and to which it was fast glued by the pitch. This should
be recorded among the advantages of this mode of advertising, that so,
possibly, even the bears and wolves, moose, deer, otter, and beaver, not to
mention the Indian, may learn where they can fit themselves according to the
latest fashion, or, at least, recover some of their own lost garments. We
christened this the Oak Hall carry.
The forenoon was as serene and placid on this wild stream in the woods,
as we are apt to imagine that Sunday in summer usually is in Massachusetts.
We were occasionally startled by the scream of a bald-eagle, sailing over the
stream in front of our batteau ; or of the fish-hawks, on w hom he levies his
contributions. There were, at intervals, small meadows of a few acres on the
sides of the stream, waving with uncut grass, which attracted the attention of
our boatmen, who regretted that they were not nearer to their clearings, and
calculated how many stacks they might cut. Two or three men sometimes
spend the summer by themselves, cutting the grass in these meadows, to sell to
the loggers in the winter, since it will fetch a higher price on the spot than in
any market in the State. On a small isle, covered with this kind of rush, or
cut grass, on which we landed to consult about our further course, we noticed
the recent track of a moose, a large, roundish hole in the soft, wet ground,
evincing the great si/e and weight of the aniinal that made it. They are fond
of the water, and visit all these island meadows, swimming as easily from island
to island as they make their way through the thickets on land. Now and
10
then we passed what McCauslin called a pokelogan, an Indian term for what
the drivers might have reason to call a poke-logs-in, an inlet that leads no-
where. If you get in, you have got to get out again the same way. These,
and the frequent " run-rounds " which come into the river again, would
embarrass an inexperienced voyager not a little.
The carry around Pockwockomus Falls was exceedingly rough and
rocky, the batteau having to be lifted directly from the water up four or five
feet on to a rock, and launched again down a similar bank. The rocks on
this portage were covered with the dents made by the spikes in the lumberers'
boots while staggering over under the weight of their batteaux ; and you
could see where the surface of some large rocks on which they had rested
their batteaux was worn quite smooth with use. As it was, we had carried
over but half the usual portage at this place for this stage of the water, and
launched our boat in the smooth wave just curving to the fall, prepared to
struggle with the most violent rapid we had to encounter. The rest of the
party walked over the remainder of the portage, while I remained with the
boatmen to assist in warping up. One had to hold the boat while the others
got in to prevent it from going over the falls. When we had pushed up
the rapids as far as possible, keeping close to the shore, Tom seized the
painter and leaped out upon a rock just visible in the water, but he lost his
footing, notwithstanding his spiked boots, and was instantly amid the rapids;
but recovering himself by good luck, and reaching another rock, he passed the
painter to me, who had followed him, and took his place again in the bows.
Leaping from rock to rock in the shoal water, close to the shore, and now and
then getting a bite with the rope round an upright one, 1 held the boat while
one reset his pole, and then all three forced it upward against any rapids.
This was " warping up." When a part of us walked round in such a place,
we generally took the precaution to take out the most valuable part of the
baggage for fear of being swamped.
As we poled up a swift rapid for half a mile above Aboljacarmegus
Falls, some of the party read their own marks on the huge logs which lay
piled up high and dry on the rocks on either hand, the relics probably of a
jam which had taken place here in the Great Freshet in the spring. Many of
these would have to wait for another great freshet, perchance, if they lasted so
long, before they could be got off. It was singular enough to meet with
property of theirs which they had never seen, and where they had never been
before, thus detained by freshets and rocks when on its way to them.
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Methinks that must be where all my property lies, cast up on the rocks on
some distant and unexplored stream, and waiting for an unheard-of freshet
to fetch it down. O make haste, ye gods, with your winds and rains, and
start the jam before it rots !
The last half mile carried us to the Sowadnehunk dead-water, so called
from the stream of the same name, signifying " running between mountains,"
an important tributary which comes in a mile above. Here we decided to
camp, about twenty miles from the dam, at the mouth of Murch Brook and
the Aboljacknagesic, mountain streams, broad off from Ktaadn, and about a
dozen miles from its summit, having made fifteen miles this day.
We had been told by McCauslin that we should here find trout enough ;
so, while some prepared the camp, the rest fell to fishing. Seizing the birch
poles which some party of Indians, or white hunters, had left on the shore, and
baiting our hooks with pork, and with trout, as soon as they were caught, we
cast our lines into the mouth of the Aboljacknagesic, a clear, swift, shallow
stream, which came in from Ktaadn. Instantly a shoal of white chivin
{Leucisci pulchelli), silvery roaches, cousin-trout, or what not, large and small,
prowling thereabouts, fell upon our bait, and one after another were landed
amidst the bushes. Anon their cousins, the true trout, took their turn, and
alternately the speckled trout, and the silvery roaches, swallowed the bait as
fast as we could throw in ; and the finest specimens of both that I have ever
seen, the largest one weighing three pounds, were heaved upon the shore,
though at first in vain, to wiggle down into the water again, for we stood in
the boat ; but soon we learned to remedy this evil ; for one, who had lost his
hook, stood on shore to catch them as they fell m a perfect shower around
him — sometimes, wet and slippery, full in his face and bosom, as his arms
were outstretched to receive them. While yet alive, before their tints had
faded, they glistened like the fairest flowers, the product of primitive rivers ;
and he could hardly trust his senses, as he stood over them, that these jewels
should have swam away in that Aboljacknagesic water for so long, so many
dark ages; — these bright fluviatile flowers, seen of Indians only, made beauti-
ful, the Lord only knows why, to swim there ; I could understand better for
this, the truth of mythology, the fables of Proteus, and all those beautiful sea-
monsters, — how all history, indeed, put to a terrestrial use, is mere history ; but
put to a celestial, is mythology always.
But there is the rough voice of Uncle George, who commands at the
frying-pan, to send over what we've got, and then you may stay till morning.
13
The pork sizzles and cries for fish. Luckily for the foolish race, and this
particularly foolish generation of trout, the night shut clown at last, not a little
deepened by tli<- dark side of Ktaadn, which, like a permanent shadow,
reared itself from the eastern bank. Lescarbot, writing in I 609, tells us that
the Sieur Champdore, who, with one of the people of the Sieur de Monts,
ascended some fifty leagues up the St. John in 1 608, found the fish so plenty,
"c|u'en mettant la chaudiere sur le feu ils en avoient pris suffisamment pour eux
disner avant (jue I'eau fust chaude." Their descendants here are no less
numerous. So we accompanied Tom into the woods to cut cedar-twigs for
our bed. While he went ahead with the axe and lopped off the smallest
twigs of the flat-leaved cedar, the arbor-vitae of the gardens, we gathered
them u[), and returned with them to the boat, until it was loaded. Our bed
was made with as much care and skill as a roof is shingled ; beginning at the
foot, and laying the twig end of the cedar upward, we advanced to the head,
a course at a time, thus successfully covering the stub-ends, and producing a
soft and level bed. For us six it was about ten feet long by six in breath.
This time we lay under our tent, having pitched it more prudently with
reference to the wind and the flame, and the usual huge fire blazed in front.
Supper was eaten off a large log, which some freshet had thrown up. This
night we had a dish of arbor-vitae, or cedar-tea, which the lumberer sometimes
uses when other herbs fail, —
"A quart of arbor-vitae.
To make him strong and mighty,"
but I had no wish to repeat the experiment. It had too medicinal a taste for
my palate. There was the skeleton of a moose here, whose bones some
Indian hunters had picked on this very spot.
In the night 1 dreamed of trout-fishing ; and, when at length I awoke, it
seemed a fable that this painted fish swam there so near my couch, and rose to
our hooks the last evening, and I doubted if I had not dreamed it all. So I
arose before dawn to test its truth, while my companions were still sleeping.
There stood Ktaadn with distinct and cloudless outline in the moonlight ; and
the rippling of the rapids was the only sound to break the stillness. Standing
on the shore, I once more cast my line into the stream, and found the dream
to be real and the fable true. The speckled trout and silver>' roach, like fly-
ing-fish, sped swiftly through the moonlight air, describing bright arcs on the
dark side of Ktaadn, until moonlight, now fading into daylight, brought satiety
to my mind, and (he minds of my companions, who had joined me.
H
By six o'clock, havins^ mounted our packs and a good blanketful of trout,
ready dressed, and swung up such baggage and provision as we wished to
leave behind upon the tops of saplings, to be out of the reach of bears, we
started for the sutimit of the mountain, distant, as Uncle George said the boat-
men called it, about four miles, but as I judged, and as it proved, nearer four-
teen. He had never been any nearer the mountain than this, and there was
not the slightest trace of man to guide us farther in this direction. At first, push-
ing a few rods up the Aboljacknagesic, or " open-land stream, " we fastened our
batteau to a tree, and traveled up the north side, through burnt lands, now
partially overgrown with young aspens and other shrubbery ; but soon, re-
crossing this stream, where it was about fifty or sixty feet wide, upon a jam of
logs and rocks, and you could cross it by this means almost anywhere, — we
struck at once for the highest peak, over a mile or more of comparatively open
land, still very gradually ascending the while. Here it fell to my lot, as the
oldest mountain-climber, to take the lead. So, scanning the woody side of
the mountain, which lay still at an indefinite distance, stretched out some seven
or eight miles in length before us, we determined to steer directly for the base
of the highest peak, leaving a large slide, by which, as 1 have since learned,
some of our predecessors ascended, on our left. This course would lead us
parallel to a dark seam in the forest, which marked the bed of a torrent, and
over a slight spur, which extended southward from the main mountain, from
whose bare summit we could get an outlook over the country, and climb
directly up the peak, which would then be close at hand. Seen from this
point, a bare ridge at the extremity of the open land, Ktaadn presented a
different aspect from any mountain 1 have seen, there being a greater propor-
tion of naked rock rising abruptly from the forest ; and we looked up at this
blue barrier as if it were some fragment of a wall which anciently bounded the
earth in that direction. Setting the compass for a northeast course, which was
the bearing of the southern base of the highest peak, we were soon buried in
the woods.
We soon began to meet with traces of bears and moose, and tho^e of