Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-10-15

BANGOR, Oct. IA.
It was Sunday and an exceedingly wet one
at that, but could not resist, and accepted a
portion of the nearly completed Canadian
Pacific railroad extending from Ship Pond to
Schoodic Lake, or nearly the whole width of
Piscataquis county. The road is already in
running order from Greenyille, west, and
Moosehead Lake is in direct communication
with the Pacific Ocean. East from Green
vile, especially between Wilson and Ship
Pond, is found the hardest building on the
line and these twelve miles will be the last to
receive the iron. For convenience We will
start from Ship Pond bridge or where
in the near future will be structure known
as such This bridge will be of iron of the
most approved pattern-conduciye to strength
and durabilty--resting upon forty-eight piers
of granite masonry and being seventeen hun
dred feet in length from cut to cut on either
side of the canyon, and across the ties of
which young America can at no distant day
calmly straddle and throw his hook to tiny
trout in the little brook, one hundred and
thirty FIVE feet beneath him.
From Blue Stone mountain we spin away
to eastward through rock cuts and over
dumps, with that grim old Sugar Loaf first on
one side, then the other, until we are almost
convinced there must be two mountains in
stead of one, so abrupt are the curves or
''ox bows" as the workmen call them. Often
we whirl around some spur in the hills bris-
Ting with dangerous looking boulders, while
away below us on the opposite side rushes
foaming torrent, swollen by th4 recent rains.
Everything is clothed this day in a very unin
.,.., L,,t I bursalv md stauJ
ing alone on Hat car hold on for dear life,
take in the olive-green scenery and absorb
unlimited moisture Through a sixty-one
foot cut we glide, jarring down shovel-fulls
of pin gravel, over culverts that ring out a
dreary welcome, around natural walls of
saty ledge seemingly impregnable, yet
crumbling easily at the will of man, leaving
behind US all too soon the brooks, the trees,
the gorges and the hills. The rain-soaked
but wonderful and as yet almost unknown
land of Piscataquis, where "horsebacks'
echo the shrill scream of the locomotive
whistle AS we dart across the katahdiu Iron
Works Railroad and come to a standstll at
the junction. This is North Brownyille
and here on the west side of
the Pleasant River will be built the foundry
and ear shops of the c. 7. X. Whether the
Great Architect of the Universe foresaw the
need and designed this exact spot for this
exact purpose, | am not able 10 say. Ger
tain it is. however, that the world might be
searched for a more perfect place. Hun
dreds of acres lay spread out before us as
level as floor Brownyille alive to its own
interests purchased and made the road
present of twenty four acres, just where it
was most needed and will ahate taxes for ten
years, and within two years can confidently
expect to see her population more than
doubled. Already new industries are afoot.
O. W. Davis with the characteristic energy
that has made him famous in connection
with the katahdin Iron Works. has in view
the building of a dam at Pleasant river
short distance below the railroad
bridge, aud / understand that capital
is forthcoming, with which to erect an i'm
mense pulp mill, material for the manufac-
ture of which is to be had in unlimited duan-
ties from all parts of the county. Mr. Dav-
is also hints at an iron furnace af the june
ton. the ore to be procured at points on the
c. L. r.. where rich discoveries have been
made. May small industries are being
talked up. and with convenient markets for
her inc exhaustlbie slate productions, Brown
vile must become the banner town of Pis-
cataquis county.
A puff a shrek. and We cross the tempo
rary Drudge, ant wlnd IN anu OUT among the
hills-at one tine running six miles to get
two miles nearer Schoodic pond, across
swampy places and good farms, for which
the owners receive satisfactory remunera-
ton, until there bursts upon the vision the
above named lake in all its placid
beauty, grand sheet of purest
water. Down its shores we rush,
hy almost. around its southern extremity,
and soon pull up at the end of the iron-re-
GREETING that We might not go through to
Mattswamkeag and surprise our friends and
dry our jackets. They are laying the rails
from Mattawamkeag this way and with no
drawbacks will connect by the 20th Freight
and passengers from Halifax can take the
c. 7. r. at Matiawamkeag, and run to ship
Pond and camp until the section from them
to Greeuville is completed, when they can
go on their way rejoicing, even as we re-
joiced at dry "togs" and good supper