Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-06-13
Island of Grand Menan.

The rocky cliffs of the coast of Maine
have within recent years attained an
uHwonted notoriety. Mount Desert, as
place of summer resort, threatens to
rival Newport and the White Noun
tains. A few years ago the beauty of
its mountains and the picturesque rug
gedness of its shores were little known,
but now the lovers of the wild and the
romantic throng every summer in great
numbers to enjoy its singular charms.
1t is the only place along our coast
where mountain, and cliff, and sea, are
united in the scenic makeup. ... ..
But already visitors to Mount Desert
hear of grander and more rugged cliffs
that mark the shores of an island lying
some eighty miles to the northward !;
and whispers are uttered of q popular
future of place that hitherto has been
scarcely known excepting to few fish
ermen. This island is called Grand
Menan. It lies a little southeast of
Eastport, is some twenty miles in length
and about five miles in width. Unlike
Mount Desert, there are no mountains,
but the shores lift in tall, weird,
SCARED, singularly marked cliffs and
escarpments. The highestSpart of the
island is at the northern end, where the
cliffs rise to a height of four hundred
feet. At the southern extremity they
are about hundred feet less in height.
Menan is an Indian word, meaning
island. Champlain, in 1905, passed the
island in one of his voyages, aud speaks
of it as Mdnth0ne but in another in
stance calls it IdndS1le. Down to the
period of the Revolution it was inhabit-
ed only by Indians, but now number
of fishermen's villages have grown up
on it's shores, the total number of its
inhabitants being set down at eighteen
hundred. There are sailing packets
connected with the place once a week.
The distance is very short-not more
than nine miles-yet itsometimes takes
week to get across the comparatively
narrow channel. Fogs abound here /;
the tides are terribly swift and strong
gales are frequent and these unite to
retard the progress of sailing g-veGsel.
When the big hotels go up, regular
steamers will, of course, remove this
difficulty, and render the island easily
accessible.
There is fascination in high, sea-
washed cliffs surprising almost any
thing else in Nature. The sea chafes
necessarily at their bases, tearing down
masses of cyclopean rocks into their
depth, eating out channels, and caves,
and long galleries, carving out pinnacles
and strange fantastic monuments-the
rocks forever set hard and defiant
against the restless waves, and the
waves forever gaining something upon
the frowning wall. Then, the wild
birds that hover about the rocky emf
nence; the strange marine creatures
that find habitation in the caves and
recesses the fogs that come up from
the sea and envelop crag and highland,
sail and cove, sky and space, in their
dense shroud the breezes that blow
rich with the salted flavor of the Allan
tic, and fill the lungs with an ecstatic
glow, like that of champagne in the
blood the freshness, the breeziness,
the expanse, the wild ruggedness, the
untamed chatting of the sea, and the un.
tanned defiance of the rocks the sails
that come and go with such free ex.
ultant spirit-all these things make up
a scenic drama full of delicious charm.
For the artist, the sportsman, the ad.
venturer, the shores of Menan are 8
great attraction; by and by they will
become famous with the great multi
tude of e-seekers.-AppLeton'S s.