CANOE AND CAMERA:
Reading edition
A
TWO HUNDRED MILE TOUR
THROUGH
THE MAINE FORESTS.
BY
Thomas Sedgwick Steele.
“If thou art worn and hard beset With sorrows that thou wouldst forget, If thou wouldst read a lesson, that will keep Thy heart from fainting, and thy soul from sleep, Go to the woods and hills!—no tears Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.”
Longfellow.
WITH SIXTY ILLUSTRATIONS,
BOSTON: ESTES AND LAURIAT, PUBLISHERS.
Copyright, 1882, By Thomas Sedgwick Steele.
University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
To my enthusiastic friends of the gun and rod, who love all that is pure and beautiful in nature, and by associating with her works, learn of man’s littleness in comparison with God’s immensity, this book is affectionately dedicated.
Thomas Sedgwick Steele
Hartford, Conn., 1880.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
An Angler’s Soliloquy.—Isaak Walton’s ideas.—A fishing minister.—The route to the woods.—Moosehead Lake and vicinity 19
CHAPTER II.
The different routes through Maine.—The Party, Guides, Baggage, Provisions, Canoes, Arms.—Camp appetite.—Studying Geography.—The start.—Bid adieu to Moosehead Lake.—North East Carry.—West Branch of the Penobscot.—First Camp on Moosehorn stream 27
CHAPTER III.
Our first Camp at mouth of Moosehorn stream.—Accommodating one’s self to circumstances.—The “Rips” of the West Branch.—Running the Rapids.—Pine Stream Falls.—Chesuncook Lake.—Umbazooksus River.—A “Bear” welcome.—Mud Pond and “Carry.”—A Picture difficult to photograph.—Third Camp at Chamberlin Lake 51
CHAPTER IV.
Chamberlin Farm and Lake.—A novel fly-trap.—A lesson in Natural History.—Telosmis Lake.—The “Cut.”—A three days’ rain-storm.—Webster Lake and Dam.—An Apparition.—The weird stillness of the primeval forests.—An accommodating fly-catcher 64
CHAPTER V.
Passage of Webster Stream.—An exciting day’s sport.—The damaged canoes.—The canvas boat triumphant.—Grand Falls.—Photographing along the route.—Indian “Carry.”—East Branch of the Penobscot.—Matagamonsis Lake.—The discovery of a new Lake.—Trout Brook Farm.—Grand, or Matagamon Lake.—A captured salmon 93
CHAPTER VI.
Dangers of wandering from Camp.—An experience on Lake Superior.—The Falls of the East Branch.—Stair Falls.—Incidents of Camp life.—An Enchanted Bower.—Hunt’s Farm.—An Artist’s Canoe.—The ascent of Hunt’s Mountain.—A reverie.—Whetstone Falls.—Discovery of Jasper on Ledge Falls.—Dawn of Civilization.—Mattawamkeag.—The East Branch Canvas-ed 117