The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1862-07-25
COMMUNICATIONS.
GFrom our Regular Correspondent
Letter from the BackwoOds of Maine.

No. 6-From Kineo to Kdtdhdin.
DEAR PRESS Your readers will let me
make personal explanation in as few words
as can. The tour, ofwhch these letters give
brief history, was not undertaken or accom-
plished for the sake Of pleasure: but the writ
er had specific object in view, daily task to
perform. The work performed possesses scien-
tific interest merely; and to present the re-
suits Of this labor in your columns would not
only be out of place, but would be positive
bore to your readers. Hence, in these COM
munications, have tried to avoid even alu-
sions to scientific matters, presenting only
those facts which might tbe supposed to attract
the attention of a casual summer tourist /
have thus endeavored to account for any little
discrepancies which may have been noticed by
your readers, and l trust the explanation is
sufficient
There are one or two notabilities on the Pc
nobscot river, whom we had the pleasure of
seeing at Chamberlain Farm last season. They
were not there this year, but the nsmory of
their peculiarities and sayings is as fresh to-
day as when we saw and heard them in the
large room at Chamberlain farmhouse last Au-
gust Around the fire was seated, among less
er lights, Dean Murch, and Jack Mann. These
two short, little men, may well be called one
class of Penobscot river-driyers. That there
are now two classes of these craftsmen, no
one who knows them will deny; the one class
steady, and very hard workers; the other
eIa sod l.~ II At.
so, are hard workers, in fact, hard fellows, ev-
cry way. The latter class are worthy descend
ents of the river-drivers of the olden time,
when every "driver' was welcomed at the
Oldfown boom by a most jovial drunk, and
"when crew of men could drink enough to
float one log" The other class is made up of
men of steadier habits. To which of these
classes my two friends Jack and Dean belong.
truth compels me to say that they are not num-
bered with the latter-day saints; in fact they
are adherents to the faith oftheir predecessors.
Jack Mann is a short, thick man, with a Jolly
round head, set square upon pair of broad
shoulders, while the aforesaid shoulders, with
an intermediate body of considerable size, are
supported by a couple of curved nethers In
truth, his legs are bowed. But that is no dis
advantage to Jack, as it might be to people
differently constituted; for, like pair of clip
tic carriage springs, these legs give certain
air of elasticity to him. The funny thing
about Jack Mann, however, is his face 1t is
always wide-awake, and running over with fun,
and yet the expression is comically SOBER
Those of you who have seen Artemas Ward
know what mean by face scomically SOBER
droll face. But Jacks face you can only see
in the woods, Artemas you find in Vanity Fair.
And Dean Murch is cousn-german to Jack in
form and feature, but with more years on his
head. His hair is whtened with hard work
and exposure, and yet the old man has much
strength left.
Ibelieve we were talking about trout in the
the East Branch, when Dean related quite an
adventure in the line of fishing, claiming. /
think, to have known brook trout so plenty
that you couldn't see the bottom of the river.
Jack was called upon for his experience and
he slowly responded by placing both hands in
his pockets and winkng once or twice at the
candle over the fire.
but once, and that was on the West Branch.
You see l had come out of Sourdnahunk
stream with half million feet of logs and had
just drove them into the river But they
hung up just abreast of the stream and we
didn't know what to make of it, till we found
out, it was trout! You see, boys, the trout
was so thick that they had .jammed,' just as a
drive of logs will, and / had to walk out ON
their backs moren half mile to begin to chop
out a passage! And our logs never started for
three days; till we had cleared away few
million fish, and Pve never hankered after
trout since that timer
The hearty laugh with which Jacks tri-
umph in Dragging was hailed showed that the
crowd considered the match between the cham
pions, diamond cut diamond" one, that the
sharpest and hardest would polish off the 9TH
err Dean acknowledged that Jack was ahead
on trout, but on moose he wouldn't give in to
anybody. Among other things he said he had
shot bull-moose while descending certain
rapids in birchl Jack said very quietly that
he "hadn't shot many moose but he did kill
one once pretty handsome was out on Ches-
uncook and killed this moose first shot halfway
across the Lake! Il LIZ miles,) And as to
your killing yours as you came down rips
that isn't much compared to mine, for when |