The Portland daily press., 1874-02-13
The Ellra of Maine.

To the Ed itor Of the Press:
The s'big oak' of Wiscasset now fallen, the
subject of my last, has led me into some ex-
animation of the an :ient Flora of the Coast
of Maine, and find it matter of historical in
terest to our newly organized Pathological So
ciety. My observations are confined within
the limits of Lincoln County, which was the
heart of The "Ducal State' into which the
history of Maine was carved for a whole gen.
Grafton,
A. d. 1905.
The earliest descriptions of our forests and
fruits are in the narratives of the Weymouth
voyage. The "Archanger' sailed from
Dartmouth. England in March, two hundred
and seventy-one years ago, first making the
sand-cliffs of Cape Cod, and then the highlands
of the coast Of Lincoln County Lat. 43 deg
80 min. in evening twilight, on the 18th of
May. The supposed sea-shOv ing highlands
proved to be islands off Pemaquid.
The French navigator had incorp ,rated
the native sounds descriptive Of the land-fall
and corrupted them into ''E, ,mnetinie," then
compressed into "Pemcuit, and in English
hardened into Pemaquid."
There seems to have been two accounts of the
voyage, one by Captain Weymouth, and one
Ly member of the ships company, known
in history as Roster. Weymouth's was rela-
tion of his own observations on the river of
Pemaquid; and Rosters was diary of the
same voyage in fuller detail, bu' the nara
ton was bereft of local nomenclature and
So ind of fho sslorns in
quo." But the region became known as the
Kingdom OF Pemaquid."
The islands were "rockey cliffs" all over
grown with '..frre-birch-beec and oke;
and the verge with Observation-Disclosures
ries-wild pea and rose bushes"
On the 22d of May the slips company made
harbor among the islands of the adjacent
Maine and in sight of Monhegan, and on one
OF them "digged garden and sowed it, and
peas and barley in sixteen days sprang up and
grew eight inches" Here we have the ear
liest garden in New England. On the environ
ing islands and mainland, they found the ma
tive growth to be all sorts OF ordinary trees
besides vines, currents, spruce and yew, An
oelica and diverse gums--Rosier adds 'plen-
~ of raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries,
roses. currents aud wild vines, sundry
woods some very great-and tall allof them,
with 'fir full OF gum, which smelled like
frankincense." The piae and spruce were
not infrequently eighteen and twenty ty-four
feet in circumference.
A. d, 1907.
As English maritime adventure developed
into colonization, here, the first planting OF
New England begun. 'Sagadahoc, 'ne
western province of the "Ancient hinsoo"
of Pemaouid,o was seized tor that purpose.
The coast from Sagadahoc to Penobscot' had
h come most notable and attractive to the
earliest European voyagers. It was rema-ka-
HE for popuIousness, the territory OF the an
c;ent .sArambec'' "a ruined city-the place
Of men. recorded on the earliest charts of
French explorers and geographers as No rum
begua. 1t was remarkable in all physical
features, and bydrographic relations. 1t was
"al mountainous" in sea showings-' with
isles of huge rocks, overgrown with all scrts
of excellent good woods for buikiing houses,
boats, barks aid ships" This section was
seized as the fttest spot to establish English
title and sovereignty upon the soil Of New
England, and to It the tide of English emf