“There’s a shore worth looking at. I’ll know what is beyond that point, if I don’t get home to-night. I’ll sleep in the woods: it’s a long time since I have done so. I wish I had brought more luncheon.”
The growth of hemlock, spruce, and fir was now succeeded by white oak, sock maple, and beech: as he neared the point, he perceived that it was very long, with rocky shores of a moderate height; but instead of terminating in a sharp angle, or in many little jagged portions, it bent around somewhat in the form of a sickle, though more curved at the end. At the distance of a quarter of a mile was an island of six acres, very long in proportion to its width; level, and covered with a growth consisting almost entirely of canoe birch, many of them three feet in diameter, and sixty or seventy feet in height.
“There must be a cove round this point,” said he. He picked the flint of his gun, and freshened the priming. As he rounded the hook, some coots, that were feeding under the lee of it, took wing. Though taken by surprise, he fired and brought down one: he now sailed into a spacious cove formed by the long point on one side, and a shorter one on the other, facing south-west; by its position, the sweep of the northern part of the point and an outlying island completely protected from all winds.
The long point, which was more than a quarter of a mile in breadth, with the adjacent land, sloped from a high ridge gradually to the south-west, terminating in a spacious interval of deep, moist soil, extending to the south-west point, which rose abruptly from the beach,—a high, rocky bluff, covered with spruce and white oak,—while at the very extremity a leaning pine, clinging by its massive roots to the edge of the cliff, supported the nest of a fish-hawk. Although the growth was very heavy, few evergreens were to be seen.
From the south-western edge of this sunny and sheltered valley the ground rose abruptly into rounded hills, with valleys intervening, the high ground covered with a noble growth of white oak.
Exclaiming, “I’ll not go from here this blessed night till I have seen all there is to be seen,” after taking a hearty luncheon, he began to explore. The level, at the water’s edge, was timbered with a mixed growth of canoe and yellow birches, shooting up to a great height, many of the trunks of the yellow birches having a flattened shape, which appeared very singular to Charlie: along with these were ash, and occasionally an enormous hemlock; there were a few round stones scattered over the surface, covered with moss of various colors, and clasped by the tree roots.
“What a splendid field this would make! Wouldn’t grass grow here, I tell you!”—kicking up the black, rich soil with his foot. “What a nice place to set a vessel! what splendid timber to build her of! and it would come right down hill. What a place for a saw-pit, under the side of that steep ledge! Anybody could build a stage there, and roll the timber right on to it. What a place for a garden!—falls right off to the sun. O! O!”
As he ascended the slope, great long beeches, and once in a while a Norway pine, shot up skyward, with scarcely a limb except at the top, where every fork boasted the nest of a great blue heron.
“How are you, old acquaintance?” said Charlie, as they flew over his head; “reckon we’ve met before, or some of your relations.”
He now came to a place where the ledge occasionally cropped out, and the beech and pine gave place to a growth of sugar maple.