CHAPTER I.
“Happy the man who has the town escaped;
To him the whisp’ring trees, the murmuring brooks,
The shining pebbles, preach
Virtue’s and wisdom’s love.”
THE START.—UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS.—OUR GUIDES AND OUTFIT.—A FLIMSY WHARF.—RAILROADING OF THE OLD DAYS.—CONTEMPTIBLE DECEIT TOWARD DUMB ANIMALS.—COMMENCEMENT OF FUN ON THE “CARRIES.”—WE GO INTO CAMP.—FIRST NIGHT IN THE WILDS.
On the 11th of September I landed at the Mount Kineo House, Moosehead Lake, fully equipped for a voyage of over four hundred miles through the wilderness of Maine to New Brunswick. Colonel G., my comrade adventurer, having arrived a few days previous, had engaged the guides, canoes, provisions, and other accessories, so there was little to do save discard the habiliments of civilization.
Two days after, on the morning of the 13th, we started from the Kineo Dock on the little steamer Day Dream for the northern extremity of Moosehead Lake, at which point we were to bid adieu to civilization and traverse the remainder of our route alone by paddle and portage.
As the steamer cast loose from the wharf, our interested friends ashore gave us a farewell cheer that echoed across the waters of the lake. In these realms of adventure, everybody is one’s friend. Friendship is spontaneous; good feeling reigns supreme, and people that we did not know united with people that we did know in their signal-tokens of “Godspeed”—or, at least, we thought they did. As we passed up the lake, fashionable ladies and gentlemen waved their handkerchiefs upon the piazzas of the hotel.
“This attention is pleasing,” remarked the Colonel.
“Pshaw!” I said; “It is warm this morning. Don’t you feel the heat of the air? They are fanning themselves.”
“Oh!” he said; “I thought they were giving us a farewell.”
Down on Kineo pebble beach some of the guides, who hang around the hotel while “open for engagements,” were standing in company with a few of the oldest inhabitants, sweeping the air with their broad felt hats in a manner wild and energetic. Pointing these out to me, the Colonel hinted his belief that their actions were intended for us.
“Nonsense,” I said; “more likely they’re doing battle with a horde of offensive insects.”
Not far from this group stood a party of sportsmen, who fired a volley from their rifles that rattled over the lake with a harsh, spasmodic detonation. To me, however, the voice of the report was highly expressive.
“Colonel,” I said, with a sudden flush of pleasure; “there’s a party of the boys giving us a send-off.”
“Fudge,” said the Colonel; “do you see that duck flying across the lake? There’s the worthy object of the honor. They’ve missed it. Some bevy of girl-admirers have been watching them from the hotel, and they save their reputation by looking toward us, as if the volley was intended for a salute.”
“Oh,” I said, collapsing at the Colonel’s retaliatory explanation; “I thought it strange that we should cause so much trouble.”
In a short while we were ploughing the upper waters of Moosehead Lake, and the frowning bluffs of Mount Kineo began to fade into the distance, the rocks, the trees, and other features of its scenery, becoming indistinct in a haze of deepening purple. As the little steamer moved onward, lying on the deck among the baggage, we took our ease, and listened to the predictions of our few companion-passengers, and studied the glowing eloquence of the cloudless sky, both of which bespoke the ominous fact of the dry season, and told us with cruel blandness to rest while we might, as there was in store plenty of exhilarating exercise upon the “carries” beyond.
While we are progressing to our destination, I will take an opportunity for a description of our guides and general outfit. This some people consider necessary, and it is therefore a duty which sooner or later must be fulfilled.
The guides, for such an extended tour of exploration, had been well chosen. One of them was an Indian, whose tribe had originated on the St. John’s River. He lived, however, at Oldtown, Maine. His name was Thomas Nichols. He was a stalwart man, six feet in height, forty-eight years of age, and weighed one hundred and fifty-five pounds. He was considered the best hunter in the vicinity, while his reputation in the manufacture of birch canoes was known throughout the State. He was dressed in a grey shirt, a cardigan jacket, and a black felt hat, which made him look like a savage who had fallen into the clutches of some prowling missionary, and issued from the “conversional brush,” not the better of soul, but the richer of a complex and indifferent suit of clothes.
OUR GUIDES.
We had two other guides, Hiram and John Mansell, who were brothers from Greenville, Maine, the former officiating as cook, the latter as man of all work. Hiram was clad in a pair of blue pants with red stripes at the sides, a souvenir of military life, and looked like a relic of Bull Run. He wore a jacket of brown duck, with a leather strap about his waist, to which was slung a long bowie-knife, whose sheath was a deer’s leg with the hoof attached. He stood five feet five inches in his stockings—how high with his shoes on we are not prepared to say—was thirty-one years of age, and weighed just one hundred and forty-eight pounds, before dinner. His brother John, clad throughout in grey woollen attire, was twenty-three years old, but as strong as an ox, and having served a good apprenticeship among the loggers, could wield an axe with powerful effect.
In addition to the provisions necessary to feed five hungry men on a five weeks’ cruise, our canoes were further loaded with two canvas A tents, 6 × 8 feet, a Baker tent, 7 × 9 feet, six iron beaver traps, five rubber and canvas bags, containing our blankets, rubber beds, cooking utensils, four Winchester rifles, and a good supply of ammunition.
Last but not least in importance to the expedition was a Tourograph, an instrument with which to photograph the scenery along the route. This apparatus, which was always placed at the head of my tent, was tended with zealous care from first to last, and many were the cautions given the guides as to its disposition in the canoe or on the carries.
“All ashore!” cried Colonel G., as we reached the ricketty wharf at the extremity of Moosehead Lake. This wharf was a sadly dilapidated affair. As we stepped upon it to transfer our baggage to the shore it squeaked like a box of compressed guinea-pigs, and bounced and rocked so beneath our weight that the Colonel declared it had at one time been an Indian baby-charmer.
Gaining land we strapped our canoes and baggage upon a wagon which was in waiting, to which were attached a pair of horses, that were also in waiting, with their goodly snouts immersed in the contents of a monster bag and snuffing after a handful of oats that had been lost somewhere in the interior. Then, as our party gave the steamer a farewell cheer, the Colonel and I led the advance along the sandy path of the North East Carry, leaving the guides to bring up the rear, to prevent any loss of the “kit.” As we trudged along, looking to the right, our attention was attracted to an old road along which ran in dubious parallel two long rows of disjointed logs, which were soon lost to sight in the choking wild-growth. These logs had once served as the tracks of a wooden railroad, extending two miles across the fields, over which the loggers, in former years, had drawn their supplies to the Penobscot waters, with the motor power of oxen. Theodore Winthrop wrote, that “whenever the engine-driver stopped to pick a huckleberry, the train, self-braking, stopped also, and the engine, or ‘bullgine,’ took in fuel from the tall grass that grew between the sleepers.” But few traces of these rails now remain, and horse-power has been substituted for that of the more patient ox.
As the Colonel and I progressed, we became quite absorbed in commenting on the features of the route over which we had both travelled so frequently. The sun shone brightly, the birds were twittering merrily on the twigs at the side of the path, insects and other nondescripts buzzed, chirped, hummed, and squeaked with ready avail of the true American privilege of free speech; but so concerned were we in our talk that we failed to notice for some time that there was room enough in the air for other music, which we did not hear. In fact, we missed the sonorous jolt and rumble of the wagon-wheels behind us. Looking back, to our surprise, we found that the vehicle was not in sight.
“A break-down,” I suggested; “let us go back and see what has happened.”
Retracing our way, in a few moments we came in sight of the wagon. It was standing stock-still in the road. As we ran up beside it, we found our caravan in a most distressing situation. The horses were standing before the clumsy wagon as motionless as statues, and with forward-pricked ears and firmly planted feet were stubbornly refusing to move a step, while the driver and our guides were dancing around them with the grace of frantic Zulus, inciting them to energy with the aid of sticks snatched from the roadside.
“What’s the matter?” we inquired.
“Can’t git the ’tarnal brutes to budge a step,” cried Hiram, desisting from the chastisement, and dropping his stick upon the road in sheer exhaustion.
“What’s the reason you can’t? Let me get at them!” cried the Colonel, furiously.
“Don’t, Colonel,” I pleaded, as my comrade began to pirouette in the Zulu dance with flourished stick. “There’s no telling what is the cause of their inability. Perhaps the poor creatures have corns.”
“No, they ’avent; no sir-ee!” cried the driver, meeting my remark with a howl of indignation. “Nary a spavin, a heave, nur a corn abeout them ar hosses, I’d hev ye know. Finest breed that was ever raised in Maine; they cum all the way from Californy.”
“Then why don’t they stir their stumps?” demanded one of the guides in a voice that made the animals quiver.
“No cross-questioning. At them again with the sticks, boys!” cried the Colonel. “We’ll put life into them.”
“No, no ye can’t. Thar’s only one thing kin inspire them ar hosses.”
“What’s that?” I asked, breathlessly.
“Oats,” replied the driver, mournfully.
“Then where are the oats? Bring out the oats!” cried the Colonel.
“Aint got none. They’ve all giv out.”
“Then where’s the bag,” I cried, with a desperate idea. “Give me the bag, and I’ll start them.”
The driver threw me the big oat bag from the interior of the wagon. It fell into my arms like a collapsed balloon. Taking a position in front of the horses, I held it at arm’s length toward their noses.
“Now,” I cried to the guides; “get behind the wagon and push. Between two fires the engine cannot fail to move.”
“You’re mad! Tom,” cried the Colonel, with a look of supreme disgust.
“Never mind,” said I; “there’s method in my madness, as you’ll soon see;” and he did see, for the next moment the horses, sniffing the oat bags, sprang forward with a desperate spurt after me. All the way along the road, I held the oat bag dancing before their eyes like an ignus fatuus. At times, however, the animals half suspected the deceit, and seemed inclined to lose faith in the feeling of man and lag. This made our progress rather spasmodic; but they were never suffered to come to a halt, for at every threatened relapse the guides stood ready to do propeller-power behind.
“This is Rapid Transit with a vengeance,” cried the Colonel, as he strode after us convulsed with laughter.
We travelled in this way for some time, until we reached the West Branch of the Penobscot, where the driver and his dashing equipage were cheerfully dismissed and we took to the water in our canoes. Thus the last link between us and civilization was broken. The water was very low, and we found ourselves ushered into a difficult passage. This was the dryest season experienced in Maine for many years.
The water courses displayed such masses of huge rocks and uncovered stretches of gravel beds that, at a distance, one would have thought them logging roads rather than the beds of large rivers. Constantly we were obliged to step overboard and lift our canoes over obstructions, and often we sighed for the aid of horse-flesh, of better calibre, however, than that we had just parted with.
After two hours of alternate dragging and paddling we shot into the right bank of the river, and made our first camp half a mile above Moosehorn Stream. Then
“There was hurrying to and fro;”
the baggage was thrown out of the canoes, the latter were drawn up on the bank and overturned to dry; the tents were unrolled, the poles were struck, and two of the guides busied themselves in their erection, while John Mansell woke the echoes of the woods with the resounding blows of his heavy axe as he cut the logs and fuel for the camp fire, and the Colonel and I, seizing our rifles, sauntered forth with sanguinary strides to decrease the population of the forest game in the interest of our first meal. When we returned we found everything under way; the log fire was crackling merrily, before which were squatted the guides on upturned pails. Around them was scattered in picturesque confusion our full culinary paraphernalia, consisting of tea and coffee-pots, kettles, frying-pans, tin cups, bakers, broilers, etc., out of which assortment they were selecting the utensils needed for our meal. They looked like a band of itinerant tinkers.
THE FIRST CAMP.
Tossing Hiram a brace of partridges the Colonel and I, arranging the Tourograph apparatus, obtained a photograph of our first camp. Soon after that supper was announced, after which sleeping accommodations engaged our attention. Going toward our tent we found that Nichols, the Indian, had carpetted it as well as those of the guides with fragrant boughs of hemlock. But our two large rubber beds yet remained to be inflated. The size of these were 36 × 80 inches. The Colonel and I began to devise a plan for swelling them without taxing our physical resources. We soon agreed that the only way out of the difficulty was the arrangement of a match on time between two of the guides. Hiram and the Indian seized upon our proposition instantly, and their rival wind powers were soon tested. Stretching the collapsed rubber bags side by side, they spread themselves flat upon the ground in similar positions, and placing their mouths at the apertures received the signal, and began to blow as if for dear life. The Colonel and I held our time-pieces in our hands, and watched the struggle with amusement. They had both powerful lungs and the bags were soon inflated. As they withdrew from the contest, the veins swelled upon their foreheads like whip-cords, and their fiery red faces glowed with the color of a harvest moon.
THE BEST MAN TO WIN.
“Who wonee?” gasped the Indian, as he passed the sleeve of his grey shirt across his perspiring face. The Colonel and I consulted, and not desiring to discourage either of the guides from a repetition of the act we declared the match a tie.
By this time night had set in. But we did not hasten to bed; no, indeed. Stretching ourselves before the big log fire we revelled in the raptures of a scene of which the tourist can never tire—the last wakeful hours of the camp at night, those hours so rife with merriment, so rich with unbosomed anecdote, when the first story, springing from the innocent seed of palpable truth, becomes a prey to those succeeding ones which bear the hideous stain of doubt. Exaggeration is wonderfully prolific. “India-rubber yarns” are told in endless variety, each one being a super-test of the elasticity of the whole. Then some one falls into the error of telling the truth, and his story is howled at as being weak and unpalatable. Finally some one tells the “whopper” of the evening, which bids defiance to retaliation and sends the party to bed in first-class trim for weird dreams. A bomb-shell of this kind from the Colonel was the cause of our dispersal, and exchanging “good nights” we entered our tents. Then, while the camp fire still burned on, while the bark curled from the trunks of the big birch logs, while the cedar snapped with its merry crackle, while the shadows of the leaping flame and smoke danced fantastically upon the ruddy tent walls—we slept.
