Daily Kennebec journal., 1870-08-30
LETTER FROM ROCKLAND.
RocKLAND, Aug. &c, 1870.
To the Editor of the Journal.

To the Editor of the Journal.
In the general drought that has pervaded
the State, Rockand has been remarkably
favored. Her fields and pastures are green,
while those in the towns around her, are
parched and gray. Her crops are maturing
vigorously, while those of neighboring towns
are whiting and prematurely ripenng under
the blaze of the relentless sun. The sultri-
ness of July and August has been assuaged
by timely showers and tempered at night by
sea breezes and moistening fogs. The splen-
did advantages of Rockland's location as a
summer resort, have never been duly appre-
ciated. Our woful lack of hotel accommoda-
ton heretofore, has kept visitors away. 1t is
no longer so. The new and commodious
Lynde hotel, and the Thorndike with its spa
cious enlargement are both thronged and we
await the completion Of our Railroad to Bath
with great expectations of rapid develope-
ment of the enjoyable features of this locality,
by visitors and tourists.
Our broad, deep bay affords a tempting field
to the yachtist. Within a gunshot of our
wharves, roam the cod and haddock, which
may be easily taken for a savory chowder on
the rocks beneath the towering and pictur-
esque head-land of Owls-head. half hours
row in the early morning will often bring a
and active mackerel. Happy are they who
strike such school on a calm and quiet
morning. With enough of coyness to make
the capture a conquest, and with beauty of
form and splendor of scale, which are mar
vel when first jerked dripping from the sea-
whilst the innumerable throng dart around
the boat for the 'chum' or bait in plain sight
the mackerel offers inducements to the
taker which few others of the fnny tribe can
command.
An hours pleasant drive from Rockland,
will bring the tourist to many scenes of nat
ural grandeur and beauty. To Owls-head
harbor, where, at the Ocean House, with its
ilimitable sea view, a clam bake is always in
order; to Owls-head promontory, light
house crowned head-land of perpendicular
rock, at whose base, two hundred feet below,
the restless waves make ceaseless roar; to the
hills, often assuming the proportions of noun
tains which rise crescent of grandeur in the
back ground of the city; to the lakes, cool in
the shelter of the hills-redolent with lilies,
and abounding in pickerel to the Turnpike"
"a name amusingly tame for such place
where the poetic may feast till sated on the
'lovely and the wild mingled in harmony"
or the scientist ponder with delight and aw e
on the wonders of the glacial epoch, or the
terrific convusions among the metamorphic
formations, in some geologic age. In fact,
for a sail, drive, a chowder, a clam bake, a
fishing excursion, an excursion for the pure
breezes of the seaside or mountain top, OF
! for an excusien-Syntax-like- search OF
the picturesque, Rockland will soon take high
! rank.
We now have gas light again, which prom
ises to stay; Chickawaukie water-with no.
tice when shut off; daily papers from Angus
ia, Bangor and Bath; a police force tina,
knows its ''biz," and the hurdy -gufdy rarely
tortureth. We are now suffering from the
dismal squeak of an asthmatic bag-pipe, but are
well contented to let it moan so long as we dc
not understand it to moan "shoo fly" mol
claim to belong to the "Horse Marines.
What it does mean doth not appear. 1t sings
in original Scotch.
The copperhead, fossil of the sauran age
| in politics, has yet wonderful vitality in Knox