The Portland daily press., 1880-07-14
The Maine Islands.

Middleton had his preconceived notion Of
the Maine Islands. When he looked at that
interminably indented coast on the map, Il
gave him fanciful impression as of the tooth
ing of machinery, into which played the recip-
rocating wheel, as it were, of the tides cur.
rents swinging off in a great arc toward the
north of Europe.
1t was coast of 21S miles, he knew, in a
! straight line. but something like $500 if you
| follow it around by the shore. He felt that it
was leaden iii color, chilly, desolate-iron-
bound, that was the word. He had wondered
at and admired, especially for their attempted
stay there in the winter, those early voyagers
from the warm European countries-the Yer
razanos, Cabots, De Monts, Gosnolds, Wey-
mouths and our very old friend Captain John
Smith, who had come along before the landing
ing at Plymouth Rock, and most of them be-
fore jamestown, Va, and he had wished they
might have had more comfortable fate Still
he had an interest in out-of-doors OF almost
any kind-in the habits of fish, where they
promised to be seen to advantage, and in those
of men as we'll. likely to differ little from the
everyday patterns to which one is accustomed.
Such promise the remote-looking Maine
islands might fairly be supposed to make, be-
sdsf that az 4f aE ETe4assshng 4as for tha
Il will go about with preconceived notion
no longer" said Middleton; and SO he found
himself presently, at midsummer, sojourning
in the midst of them, not little surprised ON
occasion at what he saw, but, on the whole,
we'll content.
The first point at which his previous concep-
tions began to be shaken was in tall old red
shingled tower, like the tower of Windmill
on the heights of Portland, above the archi-
pelago of Casco Bay. An elderly man watch
ed there, in a store of bunting methodically
distributed in pigeon-holes, to signal the ap-
pearance on the far-oH horizon of vessels in
which he took an interest. Wherever islands
are gathered together in numbers greater than
two or three, it appears that the superstition
must prevail that there are 365 of them, and
Middlston was only moderately stirred to find
the usual one for every day in the year claim
ed for Casco Bay.
The channels leading down among them
were of the lovely Opaque blue of lapis lazuli.
Beyond this the islands drew together in their
multitude like single richly wooded country.
Touches of white in them. indicated the houses,
patches of gray the weather-beaten wharves,
at which through the telescope little figures
could be seen landing and putting off. The
deep water in the harbor in front was of fine
blue also, and the crags and bowlders among
the larch, spruce, and fir of the shores, of the
pleasant gray that painters love.
Why, 1T is the coloring of Bellagio and
Riva, cried Middleton. 1--WE have nothing
to concede to Ischia or Sorrento
He found this trait even intensified as he
went on up the coast, and only some thin
wreaths of mist here and there to give touch
of mystery to the atmosphere, and to soften
over-rugged outlines, like the great camel
humps of Mount Desert, instead of lowering
gloom; and inasmuch as it so happened that
he had been chilled and detected by unceasing
fogs and rains among the vine-clad hills Of
France, and all the rest of it, not long before,
he abandoned from this time his sympathy for
the early explorers. Sailing in upon such
lovely vistas in their favorable mood, they
could have had little reason for disparagement
OF this first glimpse of new world in the
memory of any scenes they might have left
behind them whatsoever.
He went down to Commercial Wharf. an6
took little steamer-one of a number, well
careened over by the weight of their passen-
gers, flying flags and playing squeaky music
that criss-crossed about the harbor, between
the FORTS the yachts, the frigates Zone French
and one British) lying at anchor and touched
from island to island, in front of white sum-
mer hotels and bowling alleys, by which excur-
sionists in sailor suits were playipS croquet.
The government had collected of bulky red
buoys ranged on Little HIS Island with an
odd effect; Little Chebesgue mad one OF the
most attractive of The wnrte hotels Great
Chebeague white church; Hope Island sim
gle poor house and bari, with patch of cab
bages near by, and lonely dark pine GROVE
behind. A collecton of overprosperous white
buildings on a teeless small island near tbe
town, Win payllel rows of lattics-work ali
about for the ering Of fish in the sun, was
pointed out 1l% waa ast as ths of
onraarad nut a person whose occupation con-
sisted in Shing in his schooner on the Grand
Banks q, Newfoundland, or possibly on the
American Georges" a hundred miles or so
off Gaze Cod. 1t was not at all romantic in its
asnee, and Middleton made sure-as the case
proed-that he should meet these bankers
nnler more favorable circumstances.
He remarked quaint and vigorous. play OF
imagination in the naming of the islands. He
began to note here, and continued to find on
his travels in plenty such titles as the Ship,
the Barge, the Whale boat, the House, the
Basket, the Junk of Pork, Little Spoon and
Big Spoon, the RAM the Gooseberry. the
Great Duck and Little Duck, and the Brown
Cow. Then there was numerous human
family of an eccentric sort: The Hussey, the
Orp an, the Brothers, the Sisters, and the Old
Man and Old Woman-in short, suggestion
of every shape or trait from common life TO
which resemblance could be forced by the
liveliest fancy.
At one of the landings an agitated man
rushed down as the boat moved Off and brush
ing aside youngish matron, with conspicuous
filling of gold in her front teeth, and door
key with tag attached swinging in her hand,
and securing the acoustic benefit that is got by
placing the hand at the side Of the mouth,
shouted to passenger who had Just got
aboard, "And, George, a couple of pound of
French yaller, while you're about it-French
yaller!"-W. II. Bishop in Harper's Magazine
for August.