The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-01-28
CASTORIA
For Infants and Children.
The Kind You Have Always Bought
Signature ss.ss sss Of &Mzzzzzzw
IN MAINE WOODS.

14N w OIDos
Notes of a Vacation Outing in Late Au-
tumn. Hunting Moose and Deer in the
Vicinity of katahdn.
IChas. E. Benton in the Springfield Republican
Thoreau made Maine woods famous,
but the Maine woods of today are not
those of Thoreau's time. The mammoth
pine trees are thing of the past, and |
doubt whether one of them can be found
in the State. Yet, despite the changes
wrought by the lumbermen and the saw
and pulp mills, the indescribable charm
of the forest is not destroyed, and if the
State continues its wholesome legislation
for the preservation of game animals
that attraction will remain for centuries
to come. The open season is limited,
and nonresident must pay SIS for the
privilege of hunting, and even this out
lay only permits him to kill, of large
game, two deer and one bull moose.
There is no open season for killing the
female moose, or the young.
A tract in the northern part of the
State, as large as the combined areas of
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Con-
necticut, is principally covered by for
est, lakes, swamps and rivers; all min
gled in way most confusing to the
townsman This tract is threaded by
tote-roads and trails, and many places
are almost inaccessible save by the ca
noes of the guides and Indians. The
fact that this area has become favorite
vacation ground has created the neces-
sity for more or less comfortable accom-
modations for sports as the local
term is for this class of people-of both
sexes, for many women as we'll as men
now find their account of renewed health
and vitality in their annual return to the
temples of the druids. So buildings and
cabins of various degrees have been To-
Gated at divers places on the shores of
streams and lakes, and sometimes among
the mountains, where one may secure
board and lodging in close proximity to
hunting and fishing grounds.
These establishments are known as
''camps" and they are convenient insti-
tutions for the vacationists, though there
is little about them save the name to
suggest any relationship to the camp in
the Adirondacks Of 40 years ago, where
l recall that the only shelter we enjoyed
was large piece of spruce bark, one
end of which rested on the ground and
the other on pole, to protect US from
possible rain storms.
It was morning in late October when
we took the cars at Boston, but evening
when we left them at the little station of
Stacyville, on the Bangor & Aroostook
railroad, and miles walk brought US to
a comfortable farm house where we Sc
cured entertainment for the night The
October drouth was still on, and the
evening sky was lit up in the southwest
by the forest fires that were destroying
so much valuable timber land. The next
morning was clear and crisp, and cold
and majestic against the western sky
rose Mount Katahdin, the highest noun
tain in the State, some Is miles away,
though it did not seem to be that distance.
1t falls 1000 feet short of the altitude
of Mt Washington, but the latter is a
mountain among mountains; it has high
ground for surroundings and background.
But our Maine giant rises sheer in lone
some majesty, with naught to cheaper
by comparison; in that respect gaining
as do the Catskills, which, though less in
hight than either of those mentioned,
give an impression of size because their
crest towers in near proximity to sea
level.
The camp where we had engaged ac-
commodation was seven miles westward,
on the east branch of the Penobscot
river, and directly on the tote road lead
ing toward the mountain, and we had Sc
cured transportation for our baggage,
intending to hunt on the way in. The
tote roads" mentioned are simply
tracks through the forest which are so
indescribably rough that they can only
be traversed by wagons of the buck
board type, on which half ton is full
load for two good horses.
Once located in our comfortable quar-
tiers we began to study our surroundings,
for we were now we'll into the border of
the great forest tract of which | have
spoken. Before US was the river, with
its general course from north to south,
and it was at once fixed upon by the
newcomers as a landmark by means of
which one might find his way back to
camp. Its wide bed gave some hint of
the torrent which each spring conveys
''drives' containing thousands of logs
down to the sawmills, but it was now
a\hrunken titan, wherein canoeists must
make careful search for water deep
enough to carry them over the shoals and
rifles. We were nearer now to the forest
fires which were climbing slowly up the
western slope of the Hunt mountain
range, and in the evening they lit up the
sky with brilliant but yet somber color
ing Of crimson and purple. At one point
they had crept over the summit, glow
ing with fercer hue.
The careful lawmakers forbid hunt
ing deer by night with canoe and a
light, and the exceeding dryness of the
leaves and twigs made so much noise in
walking that to still-hunt by day was
difficult. Nothing daunted by difficult
les, however, we secured the forest in
eager anticipation, only the philosopher
realizing that the richest bag" was not
to be filled by the rifle, but by the eye
and the ear.
Trees have their youth, maturity, old
age and death, even as all other forms of
life have, but about our settlements We
do not see this, for the woodlands are
periodically mown of their crop. In
these wilds, however, the processes of
Nature may be seen in all their steps;
the sapling, the young tree, the tower
ing form with stately trunk, the decay