AROOSTOOK AND THE MADA- its uncivil dogs, its birch canoes drawn high up JUS WASKA. UST where the shadows of the tall hemlocks fall heaviest the confluent waters of the Mattawamkeag and Penobscot mingle in white foam, and the wavelets rippling over the stones murmur through the gloomy arch in sweet and soothing monotone. Penman is trailing his fly across the dark eddy that circles slowly through the piers of the bridge. Perchance he may take a goodly trout before the dust is shaken from his traveling-coat, or the bell of the snug little inn rings out its summons to supper. on shore, and its groups of basket-making women and demure-looking children, who shoot diminutive coin with bows and arrows at marvelous distances. On they went, turning the bend in a great semicircle of white foam, winding among picturesque islands, past Indian farms and white men's farms, through rafts and lumbermen, putting wild ducks to flight, and waking echoes from shore to shore. A thick cloud of yellow dust rolled along the right bank, and kept pace with the white volume of foam that tumbled over the wheel at the stern and the black vapor that streamed out from the smoke-stack. "Let's find the cook," said Cliquot. "My stomach tells me it should be near the dinnerhour." 66 They went forward, and found several bales of dried codfish, barrels of flour, kegs of nails, and a party of river men playing seven up." Then they dove into a small apartment containing a stove and a bench, on which lay a stout figure in repose; next into a door ajar, which proved to be the ladies' cabin, with a It is one of those cool, delicious evenings which, in Maine, invariably succeed the sultry August day, when man and beast swelter under the thermometer, at 90° in the shade. The flaming red sun in the west has hobnobbed for a moment with the full yellow moon in the east, and is now dipped beneath the horizon; while the moon is mounting the arms of the tall hemlocks, step by step, and spangling the foam of the Mattawamkeag. A light breeze is stirring the trees, and the mosquitoes buzz spite-settle, two rocking-chairs, a small table, an alfully as they are driven, baffled, from their prey, careening like a ship in a gale. Cliquot now sits in the porch. Upon his arrival he took a couple of turns in the bar-room, ordered the best chamber at command, lighted his meerschaum, and then made his quarters upon the long wooden bench outside. Cliquot is a traveler, has crossed the ocean no one knows how many times. He has traveled in France, where he married a French lady; in South America, and in other parts of the world, habitable and inhabitable. Hence he has acquired a traveler's virtues. He is never hurried, always adapts himself to circumstances, does nothing out of turn, and endures the vicissitudes of a roving life with a quiet composure that insures him comfort and enjoyment every where. How our two travelers happened to be sojourners in this forest nook came about through a note of Penman's addressed to Cliquot, proposing that they should make a tour of the Aroostook together. Cliquot readily assented, and the day of departure was set. So the lapse of time found them at Bangor, whence they traveled twelve miles by railroad to the Indian village of Old Town, upon the Penobscot, where a little stern-wheel steamboat was in waiting to take them on fifty miles further to Mattawamkeag. A coach runs daily between the two points when the water is at a low stage, following the course of the river; but on this occasion it was doubtful if the boat could carry over the "rips," and so both coach and boat ran, the former acting as a sort of tender to the latter. Off rumbled the coach over the highway, and away steamed the boat, sputtering and splashing, leaving the aboriginal settlement behind, with its little frame cabins, its huge wooden cross, its semi-civilized savages, manac, and a Bible; next into a door which disclosed the engine and a man with an oilcan; next around the stern of the boat without further discoveries, and back to the man with the can. "Engineer?" asked Cliquot. "No; he's on deck." "Where's the cook? are we to have dinner soon?" "No dinner aboard this boat. When we get to Passadumkeag you can go ashore and get a bite." "Where's the captain?" "He's on deck." "Penman, let us go aloft and settle our fares with the captain." There was but one person on deck, and his functions were obvious at a glance. He was engineer and pilot as well as captain. "You seem to have your hands full," Cliquot remarked, as the captain tugged alternately at the tiller and an iron lever in front of him. The other nodded assent. "We stop at Passadumkeag for dinner?" At Passadumkeag the passengers by stage and boat met for dinner. After consultation, Cliquot and his friend decided to stick to their craft, for the weather was intensely hot, and the roads insufferably dusty. So the stage rumbled on again, and the boat once more essayed to ascend the river. At the end of a few miles she stuck fast and the travelers then transferred themselves to the stage. At the next landing, however, she came steaming around an island, and they again took to the boat. Then they tried the stage again. Then they took to the boat. Then they mounted the stage, and at last drove up to the neat little inn where the Mattawamkeag tumbles into the Penobscot. "Halloa!" cried Cliquot, sitting up in bed. | known by the red men of past generations), and "What's the matter now?" prepared to domiciliate himself in a quiet little "Three o'clock!" from outside the door. farm-house there, he was not surprised to find "Stage starts in fifteen minutes!" "No breakfast?” inquired Cliquot, when he had dressed and descended to the long hall, where the landlord stood with a dim candle. "No, Sir; it's a rough road, and 'twould be only a waste of victuals." his friend Page present to share his fresh berries and bread and milk, and acknowledge verbally the receipt of his note from Bangor: "I shall reach Weston on Thursday evening, Providence and weather permitting." "It's all right," he said, when he observed a shade of disappointment clouded his friend's face. "The rest of the party will be here directly. I am the avant courier, you see. Hist! they are coming now, and at no slow pace either. Two to one on the black mare. She's a Messenger, you know, and Perrin's first love. Jones drives a Black Hawk, and does hate to ride in any man's dust; but he can't beat the mare. There they are, neck and neck! Now come, my beauty!" This is high latitude, and the silvery twilight is already suffusing the sky. The morning air is almost frosty, and penetrates over-coats and blankets. Over a succession of hills the coach creaks and rumbles, and presently enters the famed Aroostook. Even now has it invaded the home of the moose, the deer, the wolf, and the bear. When it had climbed a long, weary ascent, and the horses paused for rest, a panorama of rare beauty was revealed. On every side the mottled forest rose and fell in wave-like swells, and the mist that filled the intervals transformed the scenery into a tranquil ocean studded with green island gems. Soon the sun rose glowing hot, as if from a horizon of sky and sea, and when the mist rolled away bright lakes sparkled far down in the valleys, and from an occasional isolated clearing gleamed fields of golden grain. Before them, for many a mile and straight as a carpenter's rule, lay their route, as it was laid out by the Government for a military road, a mere rift through the high walls of forest. There are fresh deer tracks along the damp road, and"Whose dogs are those ahead there, driv-ants harvest their redundant crops, to fill the er?" "Dogs! faugh! quick, Penman, your rifle! Ah, there they dive into the woods! If I could have drawn a bead on one of those chaps, we might have claimed the bounty for a wolf-scalp." "Were those really wolves, driver?" "You guessed about right there." See what horses are bred in the Aroostook! What turn-outs for a backwoods country! First, two light trotting wagons rattled up to the gateway, each carrying two persons. Then came three two-seated carriages, with their complements of three ladies and a gentleman. Next a top-buggy and two dashing Di Vernons, handling the ribbons beautifully; and behind them the commissariat, with a stout team, carrying the public supplies. So gay a party has not disturbed the seclusion of the little hamlet for many summers. They are of the aristocracy of the Maine "plantations"-landed proprietors of a thousand acres, for whom a score of farm-serv New Brunswick markets on the noble St. John; whose blooded stock find envious eyes at the county fairs, and upon whose bounteous tables sparkle wines of choicest brands, imported across the line duty free. There are ladies of refinement, with soft white hands, now equipped to "rough it" for a fortnight among the wilds of "I shouldn't think they'd venture so near the Schoodac, miles away from the habitations the settlements." "Well, there ain't many settlements just here-only a house now and then along the road. Back in there, and to the t'other side, for thirty miles or more, there's neither house nor shanty, unless it be a logging camp, and nary road either. Game is plenty enough in there." Penman suggested that it would be well to keep a sharp look-out, in case a similar opportunity should offer. "It is a small chance if you see any thing," said the driver; "but you'll have sport enough at Grand Lake, where you say you're going to. We'll fetch to the turn-off by noon, and by night you'll get there if you can find a wagon big enough to haul all this stuff of yourn." Penman had arranged by letter with the good people of the Aroostook for a grand excursion to the lakes Chepetnacook and Madongamook, at such time as he should reach the rendezvous appointed. Accordingly, when he reached the little village of Weston, on the borders of the Grand Lake (or Madongamook, as of man-to lure the trout from his haunts, and coquette with the bears among the whortleberries that tint the islands of the "Wide Prospect Water." Then there is the editor of the Aroostook Times, who must return within the week to furnish his paper a full report of the excursion; an ex-M.C., and—there are others, twenty-two in all. But our Aroostookers are off for pleasure, and not for labor. They will not annoy themselves with the arduous duties of the camp, while Bill Brannan can be obtained as chief cook and bottle-washer, old Hinch and Smith for general camp work-to pitch the tents, build shanties, cut fire-wood, row the batteaux, etc., etc.all old loggers together, who have often taken their turn at the frying-pan and the various chores of the "swamp." Most important, too, are the services of tall Jack Stewart, who stands six feet six in his stockings-the best bear-hunter in the county, and who can paddle a canoe, call a moose, swing an axe, follow a blind trail, or hook a trout, as well as the best. Rare specimen of the Aroostook native, "only nineteen years old." And now, at early evening, when all had been | ture reigns in her virgin beauty, and the air is made acquainted, and had partaken of a plain odorous with the sweet scents of the forest. but excellent supper, Jones demanded the atten- Like an arrow, and as noiselessly, the light tion of the excursionists. canoe skims the glassy lake, and the only sounds "Is every thing ready for an early start in that break the stillness are the gentle dip of the the morning?" "Every thing." "It is well. Ladies and Gentlemen, we shall start at four o'clock in the morning, so as to reach the camp on the lake, which is ten miles down, and have breakfast by seven. It is now nine o'clock. I would therefore earnestly advise that all immediately retire, that there may be no laggards in the morning. As to sleeping accommodations, I will state that there are but five bedrooms at our disposal. As there are eleven ladies and several married gentlemen, it is proposed that all single ladies shall occupy apartments by themselves, and the others sleep together. Single gentlemen will, of course, be put to their own shifts, and take such accommodation as they can find." At early morning the excursionists were driven a mile or two down to the lake, and their carriages then returned. The sun never rose more gorgeously upon the broad waters of Madongamook. On the dead top of a tall pine that leaned over the lake a great eagle sat, complacently surveying himself in the crimsoned surface below. A couple of ducks got up and flapped out toward the middle, leaving parallel wakes as they flew; a king-fisher scolded sharply as he mounted the scraggy limb of a hemlock; and the hoarse voice of a blue crane came clear and full from the further shore of the cove. Forest and wave alike teemed with life, and the presence of man seemed to cause little alarm. Just in the edge of the woods a Methodist rabbit stood saying his prayers; a red squirrel ran down to the end of a limb, flirted his tail, and sat looking with unwinking eyes; and a bevy of fat young partridges ran skulking among the brush and moss-covered logs, two of which Penman shot with his revolver, and one Stewart knocked over with a stone. So was the peace of the forest outraged, and for a moment after the pistol's report the solitude was frightened into silence. Then the clear notes of the songsters rang out again, and the leaves were rustled by other agents than the passing breeze. ure. But the beauties of the charming landscape were presently forgotten in the bustle of departPrecious little time it took to get under way, for many hands made light work. The ladies were comfortably bestowed in two large batteaux, while another received the luggage, tents, camp utensils, and provisions. Jack Stewart was to go in a birch canoe. Penman frisked with delightful anticipation; for the sight of the frail craft revived many pleasant reminiscences of perilous voyages away up toward the sources of the Mississippi, and upon the wild streams that thread the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin. Romance is always associated with the birch canoe; for the little bark floats only where na blade and the ripple that chuckles merrily under the stem. On-on, guided by firm and dextrous hands, skirting beautiful white sand beaches, gracefully sweeping coves, and farreaching points of land; under the shadows of densely - wooded hills, along the margins of peaceful islands, and out into the broad expanse of waters that stretch eight miles from shore to shore. Gradually the three dark specks in the distance increase in size, until the batteaux which had set out an hour before, with their parti-colored crews, are plainly discernible; and anon a wild chorus comes wafted over the water, clear and full. Now a sharp report rings out, and is echoed from the forest confines of the lake. "Ha! a deer! Cliquot, a deer! They have fired at him. See! he is in the lake! How he breasts the waves! and what a tumult of foam and bubbles he leaves behind him! They've missed him-he's too far off! Shall we give chase, Stewart ?" "It's of no use; he'll make the shore before we can get within range." "Well, let him go, and a long life to him! What right have we to prove our skill at the cost of the noble creature's happy existence?" Now rest the paddles, and let us float a while at ease. Such scenery should make the easel envious, and cap the poet's wildest dream. What an Arcadia of romance! This lake is the central point of what, not many years ago, was a vast area of unbroken wilderness. Here the red men gathered around the council-fire, for uncounted generations, in their annual assembling; and the voices of their chiefs and the discordant cries of wild beasts alone disturbed the solitude. There is a dark column of smoke rising gently from behind the hills, but it is not from their camp-fires; for the pioneer is already making his clearings. Here, too, during the busy winters, the adjacent forests have rung for many a year with the crash of falling pines, where the lumberman wielded his ruthless axe; and in the early spring the lake has been covered with the rewards of his toil, floating down on their way through the St. Croix to the lumber-ports below. Yet the eagle still dares to build his nest among the rocks, and the bear and deer have not been frightened from their haunts. The Indians called this "Greatgrandfather's" Lake. They have gone; but without the Fathers it is a Grand Lake still. Arrived at the foot of the lake the little fleet landed in a snug cove, whence a blind path led through the woods to an open glade which was selected for the camp site. Here legions of mosquitoes disputed possession, but they were soon repulsed by the smudges which were made and driven under cover. Breakfast dispatched, all addressed themselves to their respective duties. To build a fire and put up the tents was northern waters of the Aroostook; along some Brannan and the work of but a few moments. Hinch cut forks and cross-poles, and soon completed the frame-work of a long table and benches; while Smith and Stewart, who a short time since disappeared among the bushes, soon returned with long split shingles, with which they finished this primitive furniture in most approved pic--Wassataquoik, Chesuncook, Mooseluckmanic style. But the shingles were dry, and apparently long cut. Whence came they? The Vandals had ravaged an old shanty of Dr. Bethune's! This was a favorite resort of his, and for many Often a season had he made his camp here. had he worshiped in these forest aisles, and found sermons in stones and in the running Here many brooks, and good in every thing. a speckled trout has risen to his subtle fly, and the great trout of the lake leaped from its transAlas! dear old parent depths at his beck. divine! He has gone the way of all the earth, and the places that have known him shall know him no more. The settlers were wont to look for his coming, and rejoiced in his presence. The hardy lumbermen will miss his portly figure and genial face from their camps, and listen no more to his Sabbath teachings. But the future visitor to Grand Lake and the Schoodacs may chance to stumble upon some secluded camp of his, and contemplate with greater interest the ground he treads. So the ramblers dined from the Doctor's shingles! How all the happy days were passed in this wilderness nook may not here be told in detail-how the ladies essayed "the gentle art" (as if all the winning arts of the dear sex but paled before this one!), and snared the speckled beauties with rod and reel; how they sported in the limpid water, culled flowers and berries, and wove wreaths and garlands; how the men fished and hunted, and staid out o' nights until the dear ones wept them lost forever, and returned laden with the spoils of their raids; how there were frequent excursions to unexplored localities, in which both sexes joined; and how sly couples strolled away to leafy retreats, and came back to camp by different routes, as if they had Then there were romping not met before. games, and quiet games, and music, and cotillions upon the springy sward, and uncouth Indian dances at evening in the glare of the blazing camp-fire, until the snapping wood had burned to embers, and tired nature demanded rest. As to fishing, who that has ever wet his line in these waters could thereafter be content to angle elsewhere? The orthodox sportsman may here roam from stream to stream, casting his fly at almost every throw with a certainty of success, over pools which might well excite the envy of many a trans-Atlantic angler. There is no other region east of the Rocky Mountains, in the United States, equal to it, unless it be in the almost primitive Big Woods of Wisconsin. Let the rambler make his camp on whatever lake or stream he will, it is all the same, whether it be in the St. Croix country, the region of the wild Moosehead Lake, or the more guntic, Bamedumpkok, Pangokwahem, Umsas- To speak of the numbers and size of the trout So the days glided merrily on, with incident and adventure that must remain untold, until, on one beautiful morning, Penman and Cliquot bade adieu to their friends, and once more turned their faces northward. Penman had humbugged Cliquot into the belief that they were to have log-cabin fare the rest of their journey, and that the remaining portion of the Aroostook was an almost uninhabited wilderness. He was consequently surprised as they approached Houlton, the capital of the county, to see fine farms and fields of golden grain, wheat, rye, barley, oats, and buckwheat, and acres of luxuriant potatoes spread over the country in a rich mosaic of divers hues, capacious barns and pretentious houses, young orchards and pastures of cattle and sheep -evidences of the thrift of the settlers, and of The surthe nutritious soil which has given the settling lands of the Aroostook their fame. face of the country was undulating, and traversed by numerous streams that flow into the Cliquot wondered that such Meduxnekeag. abundant crops could be raised in so high a latitude, and that the culture of apples and plums promised such success. plained that the isothermal lines here dipped well to the southward, that the weather was warmer in the Aroostook in winter than it is two hundred miles farther south, and that wheat is not unfrequently sown as early as the middle He had known of fields yielding of April. Penman ex thirty bushels to the acre, and of oats not less than eighty bushels. But Cliquot's surprise was increased when he entered the town of Houlton to see a brick-and-stone court-house of goodly dimensions and architecture, rows of shops, mills, foundries, a newspaper and job printing-office, residences indicative of good taste and wealth, and a hotel of no mean pretensions, which promised "good entertainment for man and beast." Here the travelers threw off their dusters, and having made their ablutions, lighted their pipes and took position on the piazza to await dinner. In the interval, stages arrived from the four cardinal points, and among the throng of passing vehicles were noticed occasional stylish teams and dashing private equipages, denoting thrift and trade. It was observed, too, that the inhabitants, while possessing many of the elements of Yankee character, seemed more like the aristocracy of some old English town than the people of a newly-settled backwoods country. That their constant commercial and social intercourse with the neighboring Province of New Brunswick should have somewhat modified their national characteristics is not to be wondered at. Neither is it strange that their sympathies should have followed in the same direction, nor that, except in the matter of jurisdiction, this vast and fertile region is almost, if not quite, as really annexed to that province as if so stipulated in the treaty of 1842; since its natural channel for communication is through the St. John, and the artificial channels made to connect it with the southern part of the State have proved inadequate to compete successfully with the first. It could not be expected that the traffic of the Aroostook would pass through the two great arteries that traverse it to Bangor, when the freight charges are three times as great as they are by the valley of the St. John. to duties, the boundary line, never here a pracAs tically serious obstacle to interchange of commodities, has, since the Reciprocity Treaty went into operation, been little more than a nominal one. The Aroostook is thus made an isolated part of the Federal Domain. There is a marked difference between its people and the people of the remainder of the State and of New England. How easily they can distinguish an "outsider" from a native! (All the rest of the United States is outside to them.) "Ah! you are from the outside, I observe. When did you come in? What is the news out West?" Now, where is that indefinite locality known as "out West?" The inhabitant of Minnesota turns his face to the Rocky Mountains, and goes West. The citizen of Chicago goes West to the Mississippi. The native of New York migrates to Ohio, and goes West. The New Englander goes West to the Genesee Valley. gorian goes West, and the Aroostooker goes West to Bangor! Even the Federal currency is almost unused here, and bills of banks outside of the State are generally refused. Cliquot wished change for a ten-dollar note, and received one dollar in Western money (a Bangor note), a fifty cent New Brunswick bill, a dollar and a half ditto, a pound note, and a most interesting collection of silver and copper coins, British shillings, sixpences, twenty cent pieces, two "Yorkers" (United States quarter dollars), and pennies as large as a quoit. Could there be more palpable evidence of the isolation of the Aroostook from the States, and of its intimacy with the land of the Blue Noses? pleasant drives and successful angling of the Our two adventurers passed three days in streams in the vicinity of Houlton. ascended an eminence near the old barracks, Once they from which they obtained a most extensive view of the surrounding country, embracing perhaps one-third of the entire Aroostook region. It was a panorama of rare beauty that lay spread like a map before them. The atmosphere had a purplish, hazy hue, through which the sunlight fell in softened rays that toned down the inequalities of surface, so that the broad expanse seemed like a green rolling prairie, interspersed with sparkling lakes and streams. jacent hills spiral columns of smoke ascended From adlike Indian signal-fires, and floated lazily away upon the still air. In the dim distance the faint outlines of isolated mountain peaks loomed up against the sky, and fifty miles away, barely discernible to the naked eye, Mount Katahden rested like a shadowy cloud upon the horizon. But with the aid of Cliquot's telescope, the grand old mountain stood out in bold relief, and from its summit its coronal of everlasting snow gleamed with a fixed white light like the stars of an arctic sky. ward was Mars Hill, round as a hayrick, and Thirty miles to the northfamous as the point selected by the British commissioners as the commencement of the heights of land forming the boundary of the United It is emphatically a country of lakes and streams. States. There are no mountain ranges in Maine. But the towering peaks stand out in solitary grandeur from the comparatively level tracts surrounding, as if inviting wonder and admiration. Of these the number is large, and among the most prominent are Abraham, Sugar Loaf, Chase's, Katahden, and Mount Blue. upon the charming landscape they wandered When our two heroes had feasted their eyes thoughtfully over the parade-ground and through the old barracks of Fort Hancock, now fast crumbling to decay, but associated with one of Pine - Tree State. the most eventful periods in the history of the what were once the officers' quarters, and knockThen they strolled on to ing, summoned the old sergeant, from whose lips they gathered some tritely told incidents of the famous "Aroostook War." The horrors of that bloody struggle for terrihistory, except as they have been recorded in The Ban-torial acquisition have found small place in State papers, and are not familiar to the present generation. The reader will therefore be thankful for the following succinct narration of its principal events, as they were received by Pen |