Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-12-07
Csc a Box. kinsman's Drug Store.
The 0iee,rINE CO., Springfield, Mass.
Bottomiess Etna Boo.

rive travelled on the Maine Contra
| trains for more than 20 wears and tbe
only place on the whole road tina.
made me nervous was that mile stretch,
! over Etna bog so said an old time
drummer to Commercial reporte,
the other day. Continuing he said:
On, l know most people never
thought of it. That was because they
| never knew the secret of the thing.
l did
Il know that the Maine Central
management was never satisfied with
the place either. Don't you remember
how the trains used to crawl across
the trestle? The engineers had the
strictest orders. But finally the road
concluded that further tempting of
providence wasn't in line with the
| proper management of a first class
failroad-which the Maine Central is
So with the safety of their patrons in
mind they swung the track around the
bog onto the solid land
Now I'll tell you something about
that bog that I knew for years bu:
never told to any one for didn't want
to needlessly alarm anyone.
Years and years ago when the rail-
| road line was constructed across from
the Kennebec to the Penobscot. the en-.
gineers came to the Etna bog. They
didn't realize what meddleSome old
snag it was going to prove and so they
strung the line of the road straight
across it.
In the worst part of the quaggy
morass it was decided to put in a
trestle. So the farmers who lived close
by commenced to cut the tallest trees
on their woodlots fsud to haul in the
timber for piling
'Etna bog like many another place
in Maine of the sort has the name of
being bottomless.
But as the engineers probed and ex-
amined they found at the distance Of
30 feet or more what appeared to be a
solid foundation of earth. With little
effort the pilings were let down
through the mud onto this bottom.
Then by the use of pile drivers the logs
were driven down into this earth.
But one day an extra long log was
hauled in by one man. The engineers
decided to drive this down further than
they had forced the others in order to
see if they couldn't secure a firmer
foundation than the rather shaky earth
they had found at 40 feet. At the sec
end or third blow from the pile driver
on the end of the huge log. PUNK down
it went out of sight. 1t had evidently
broken through the bottom
Then those in charge of the work
made a startling discovery. What
they had thought was solid bottorn
was really nothing but a crust of earth
that was as nearly as could be learned,
only about three feet thick. On this
crust therefore, were located all the
pilings of the railroad. Below the
crust was water or thin mud. The big
log had gone down like flash ana
dangled loosely at the end of the sup
porting chains
The engineers then determined to
find bottom if they could and so an
other 60 feet length was spliced on the
first log. Then the elongated pile was
pushed down again but the upper end
went under water and still no signs of
u bottom. Another Go foot splice.
Again it was forced down and still no
solid spot on which the leg could set
it's foot. Well, how far down do you
suppose they spliced and probed?
-Four hundred and fifty feet. Think
of that.
And no bottom. Then they gave it
up as bad job and with some mis-
giving went to work setting the piling
on the crust.
But under the circumstances they
had to let it go at that. That was the
most thorough search for bottom that
was ever made in Etna bog and it isn't
likely that any one else will ever go to
the trouble and the expense of doing
any more probing. But if ever place
had a good right to the name of bot
tomless it is most assuredly that dis
NAL spot. Now do you wonder that /
felt worried when we used to go crawl
ing across Etna bog in the night and I
thought of 450 feet of pit under me?
so I say l was mighty glad when
the Maine Central changed the loca
tion."