The Portland daily press., 1879-07-10
MOUNT DESERT.
Opening Of the New Route to the Fa-
nous Resort.


The home-bound fisher greets thy lights,
Oh, hundred-harbored Mane!''
Ever since the advent Of song, poets have
We'd with each other in praise of the mountain
heights, and these have been challenged in
turn by some who chanted aloft the beauties of
the ocean. The contest has been waged long
and well, and earnest sympathizers have lent
their prosaic weapons to the contest. But here
in Maine we have one neutral spot where the
lover of the grand old sea and the admirer of
dizzy sleeps can find enough to satisfy their
special desires and clasp hands in token of
mutual satisfaetion-A place where one can in
the same day catch trout and cod, climb hills
and take salt water baths, go yachting on the
ocean and rowing in the lake. All this and
stranger things even can the tourist perform at
Names ever popular and still increasing sum-
mer resort on the coast, the island of Mount
Desert.
The history of the place is romantic and has
mine of sub iects for the poet the chronicler
and the artist In the early part of September
1904, Samuel Champlain, allured by the fabul-
GUS tales of Norombega, Sc sail in little shall
lop of eighteen tons burthe from St. Croix to
explore the bounds of any lands that might
answer tne glowing ueScrlptlOn LII his WeSt-
ward course he stumbled upon
''The gray and thunder-smitten pile
and was no doubt, impressed by the
sight of the craggy SUBMITS, stripped of trees,
basking their Scared and splintered sleeps in
the September sun. 81 have called it, he says
in his narrative, 'The Isle of Mounts Deserts"
aname which has superseded old Indian
title of Pemetic. The modern spelling is
merely the anglicized form, and it may be well
to state here that the accentuaton is the first
syllable, although universally mispronounced
in Maine and notably so on the island itself
Later, in 1912, through the efforts of Madame
de Guercheville who was DESTROYS of founding
Jesuit missions in the new world, it was
colonized by company of thirty persons, in
Guiding Friars Beard, Muse, Quentin and Du
Thet The voyagers under command of La
Sausage ran upon the part of the island called
by them and known now as St. Sauveur, but
were driven off the next year in buccaneer
style by Argall Then the heroic missionary
Gilbert Du Thet, in defending his colony from
the wanton attack stood at his cannon, match
in hand, till he fell MORALLY wounded. This
seemed to put quietus upon the further at
tempt at colonization till century
and half later Abraham Somes, a
Gloucester coaster, with some of his
neighbors began the present settlement
His name is perpetuated in Somesville, fish
ing village at the head of wonderful sound,
which, wedge like, the sea has driven into the
side of the isle attempting to split it.
With its companion sentry the Camden
Hills, Mt. Desert is one of the wardens Of Pc
nobscot bay, but in grandeur, looms up pre-
eminent above all. 1t is as full of natural beau
ties and curiosties as an egg is ofSmeat, to men
ton which would turn this tale into the dreary
waste of guide book. From the top of Green
Mountain, the highest point on the island, the
eye wanders over an almost endless vista of
seascape and landscape, reaching actually to
Mt. Washington on clear day.
There are but two places to which the he
gira of summer visitors tends, Southwest and
Bar Harbors, the latter being the more popu-
lar. Scattered all over the island however in
addition to the great hotel centre, are large
number of private cottages, some very elegant,
owned by Southern and Western people. Out
lying are the FIVE Porcupine Islands, regular
breed br istling their backs with erected pines,
as if irritated by the chatting sea.
Hither to this beautiful spot the officers Of
the Portland, Bangor & Machias Steamboat
Co. conceived the happy idea of inviting their
friends to help them inaugurate their new
route. Previously they had only one boat to
the island, but the increase of travel required
the assistance Of larger accommodations, and
the City of Richmond was impressed into the
service. The route was changed SO that the
tourist can have more daylight on the trip and
now with new facilities the energetic company
offer an unequalled attraction for the summer
season. The invited guests were from New
York, Boston, Portland and Rockland and to
the number of three hundred left State street
wharf Monday night at Ills in the goodly
steamship aforesaid Capt. VIM. E. Dennison
master,-"and right good captain uoU!-
island was reached at high noon next day and
the party dispersed to the different hotels for
the day. In the evening there was grand
dance in the town hall and at the Rodeck
House the Rockland Opheus Club, an excel
lent amateur society, delighted large audi
ence with choice music. The untimely rain
prevented any extended sight seeing. Early
yesterday morning the steamer slipped its
cable and started on the homeward sail, with q
bright day, clear sun and smooth sea. Then,
as ON the day previous, the company fairly
drank in the delicious beauties of the route
Twisting in and out among the picturesque
isles OF the coast, like a rivers surface, the
staunch craft sped on the wings of the wind.
10 describe the character of the views, really,
throwing aside reportorial effervescence, beg
gars the dictionary. The main coast is pecu-
liar in its picturesqueness, and nothing like its
topography is to be seen on the Atlantic. Just
before arriving at Rockland a meeting of the
party was called to order by ex-governor and
collector of Portland, Hon. Lot M. Morrill,, at
which time resolutions were passed and a
witty poem read by Clergyman. The resolu-
tons voiced the opinion of all, FOR with safe
and thoroughly comfortable boat, skilled
pilots, officers gentlemanly and attentive from
captain to deck-swabber, ever, thing tended to
make life enjoyable. To those who have pre-
viously known of the trip we do not wouder at
their frequent repetition of such delis vhtful
experiences. To those who have never been,
we can only wonder that they have allowed
the opportunities to slip by. Hereafter, &C.
cording to the announcements, no one need
wait, as ample facilities are afforded to be-
come personally familiar with one of the best
summer resorts in the country, approached by
wonderfully picturesque route
Republican County Convention,
The Cumberland County Penuhlican Com