stream there, which
another Indian told us meant "Running between mountains." Though some
lower summits were afterward uncovered, we got no more complete view of
Katadn while we were in the woods. The clearing to which we were bound was
on the right of the mouth of the river, and was reached by going round a
low point, where the water was shallow to a great distance from the shore.
Chesuncook Lake extends northwest and southeast, and is called eighteen
miles long and three wide, without an island. We had entered the northwest
corner of it, and when near the shore could see only part way down it. The
principal mountains visible from the land here were those already
mentioned, between southeast and east, and a few summits a little west of
north, but generally the north and northwest horizon about the St. John
and the British boundary was comparatively level.

Ansell Smith's, the oldest and principal clearing about this lake,
appeared to be quite a harbor for _bateaux_ and canoes; seven or eight of
the former were lying about, and there was a small scow for hay, and a
capstan on a platform, now high and dry, ready to be floated and anchored
to tow rafts with. It was a very primitive kind of harbor, where boats
were drawn up amid the stumps,--such a one, methought, as the Argo might
have been launched in. There were five other huts with small clearings on
the opposite side of the lake, all at this end and visible from this
point. One of the Smiths told me that it was so far cleared that they came
here to live and built the present house four years before, though the
family had been here but a few months.

I was interested to see how a pioneer lived on this side of the country.
His life is in some respects more adventurous than that of his brother in
the West; for he contends with winter as well as the wilderness, and there
is a greater interval of time at least between him and the army which is
to follow. Here immigration is a tide which may ebb when it has swept away
the pines; there it is not a tide, but an inundation, and roads and other
improvements come steadily rushing after.

As we approached the log-house, a dozen rods from the lake, and
considerably elevated above it, the projecting ends of the logs lapping
over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very
rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-
boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long,