The Adventures of six young men in the wilds of Maine and Canada; or the Knockabout Club ... Illustrated

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THE ADVENTURES OF SIX YOUNG MEN IN THE WILDS OF MAINE AND CANADA; OR, TIHIE ZNOCK-ABOITT C Hi TJ IB - BY C. A. STEPHENS, AUTHOR OF "CAMFING OUT," ''LEFT ON LABRADOR," "FOX IIUNTINC," "ON THE AMAZONS," "THE YOUNG MOOSE HUNTERS," ETC. FULLY LLLUSTRATED. ?Lontion : DEAN & SON, PUBLISHERS, i6oa, FLEET STREET, E.C. CONTENTS. chapter pace Informally „ . 13 I. Down East on a Wheel 20 II. Rougher and Wilder grew the Way 36 III. Good-bye, Bicycles. Off to the Lakes 44 IV. Camping Out 56 V. Moosehead and the West Branch 71 VI. Umbazooksous Meadows. Two Sides to a Story .... 83 VII. The Wood-sprites. A Nocturnal Scare 92 VIII. Bumble-bees' Nests. Stein's Adventure 101 IX. Camping at the Great Dam. Uncle John's Story .... 10S X. Down the Alleguash. Uncle Amos' Story 114 XL Rike and Moses O. go Moose-hunting.

The Result . . . 122 XII. Riviere du Loup and the Saguenay 131 XIII. Lac St. Jean. Moses O. makes a Bad Shot 139 XIV. Camped on the Tshistagama. Stein Lost 146 XV. A Caribou at Bay. Hunting by Torchlight 157 XVI. Setting Bear-traps. A Strong Fish. Odd Game .... 166 XVII. Another Caribou. Nugent 's Fight with a Loup cervier ■ 173 XVIII. Bear versus Hedgehog. Karzy goes Beaver-hunting . . . 1S0 XIX. A Rough-and-tumble Otter-hunt 191 XX. The Woods-demon 200 XXI. Quebec. The Wood-sprites again. Farewell ILLUSTRATI ONS, PAGE PAGE Father Time as an Organ-grinder Trout 7° Frontispiece. Moosehead 71 Map of Moosehead Lake 72 The Club at the Cross-Road 16 The Ram took him again and sent him his whole Length 23 First Glimpse of Moosehead .... 73 Mount Kineo 74 On the fly 27 Moosehead from Mount Kineo ... 75 Billings' Falls in "The Gulf" ... 76 Massacre of the Wakeley Family . . 29 " Zeke !

Zeke ! come back ! " .... 32 Socatean Stream Falls 77 Drilling Holes in the Ledge ... -33 Old wooden Railroad and " Bullgine " . 78 Snow's Falls one hundred Years ago . 37 Brassau Rapids 79 A Maine Lake 38 A Party we saw . 81 Moses O. turning the Guide-post ... 43 Waiting for her Coffee 85 Upper Fall, Cataract Brook .... 45 "Grand Dad" 88 Sylvan Cascade, Cataract Brook ... 46 A Happy Family. — One we didn"t meet 89 The Devil's Den 47 Katahdin from the Lake 90 Silver Ripple Cascade, Black Brook . . 48 Uncle Amos and Uncle Johnny ... 91 Screw-Auger Falls, Bear River ... 50 The Ladies' Camp 95 Steamer Welokennebacook 52 " Don't fire ! that air's an Ox "... 99 The Upper Dam 53 Taking up Bumble-Bees' Nests . . 102 Lake Welokennebacook 54 " I met the old Bear 104 Camp Bellevue, Lake Molecliunkamunk . 55 The Horse biting wildly at him . . . 106 Camping Out 57 Old Times on the Alleguash .... 109 Lake Molecliunkamunk 58 In the dead Water 112 Gentlemen Tourists' Camp 60 A Scene on the Alleguash 115 Interior of a Sportsman's Camp ... 61 A Logging Camp 116 Theodore Winthrop 62 Junction of Alleguash and Aroostook . 123 Lake Mooseluckmeguntic 63 "We both sprang to the Door" . . . 12S Spirit of Mooseluckmeguntic .... 64 On the Stage 129 Camp Henry, Rangeley Outlet ... 65 All aboard for the Saguenay .... 132 A Camp on Lake Mooseluckmeguntic . 67 L'ance a 1'eau, or Port of Tadousac . 133 A Settler's Log Cabin 68 Tadousac 134 The First Steamer on the Lakes ... 69 Entrance to the Saguenay ILL USTRA TIONS.

Chapter I. Down East On

A WHEEL. BICYCLE is indeed an odd-looking vehicle; and to see half a dozen fellows dashing along on them at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, is pretty sure to attract the undivided attention of people not accustomed to the sight. " Look a there, Hiram ! " we heard one farmer, in a potato-field killing bugs,*sing out to another gathering green pease the other side of the line wall. " Gosh a' mighty! Only see them fellers agoing it atop of them wagon wheels! What for 'nation' sake be they a-settin' on?" Another time, as we were passing through M Plantation, far up in Maine, in the " greenback " region, we had got an early start one morning, and were trundling along in the wheel ruts; and our captain, in the exuberance of his spirits, had put on a spurt and gone ahead. It was about sunrise.

There were farms scattered here and there along^ the road ; and the good folks were at this hour just rousingo ~ JO out to milk their cows. Dearborn's bicycle was a nickel-plated one; and as he darted noiselessly along the road, an old farmer standing at the corner of his barn with two tin milk-pails on his arm, caught sight of him, and stopped short in the middle of a mighty yawn. Probably his eyes were not yet fairly open. His old lady was coming along the path from the house with another pail. "Marm! " he sang out to her, "there goes old Split-huf himself, straddle of a streak o' lightnin', I vum! See his old forked tail glisten! " * Bug. In America, the name of a vast multitude of insects. DOIVN EAST ON A WHEEL. 21 Before Dearborn had got fairly past and round the turn, the rest of us hove in sight, in full chase.

"And, marm!" shouted the old man, "here comes another of 'urn ! — twin brother to him ! — and another I — and another ! Run, marm — get the Bible! " " Marm " disappeared, but whether for the holy volume or a bumper of hot water, we did not remain to learn. The great annoyance is meeting teams. Now, a bicycle has just as good a right on the public highway as any other vehicle. But the public has not yet come to quite believe that it has. Drivers of teams often act as if they thought that a bicycler had no rights whatever which they ought to respect. It was our policy to carefully avoid all quarrels on this point. Almost always, the horses would prick up their ears, and often show signs of alarm. In all such cases, we at once dis mounted and stood quietly by our machines. The teams would then generally pass us without further trouble.

But it is necessary for the bicycler to have both patience and discretion. Especially should he use care and courtesy when meeting carriages driven by ladies. Fre quently in the country, the farmers' wives and daughters will be met, driving to and from the village store. A Down-East farmer's horse is often a very ticklish animal, seldom more than half broken from a colt, and addicted to shying at every new object it sees. Frequently it is the farmer's pet beast, — never allowed to carry over three persons in the wagon, and they must all walk up the hills, — and in the matter of keeping and usage, sometimes fares better than the farmer's wife. One day we met a rackety old express wagon drawn by a fat, rough-haired, gray mare, and driven by an elderly woman whose face was mostly concealed within the depths of a very extraordinary bon net.

The mare saw us, stopped and began to back and prance; while the poor old lady shook the reins, crying out to her horse and to us in a very thin, distressed voice, "Whoa, dear! Whoa, dear! Du pray, young men, git them frisky-lookin' things o' yourn out o' the road! Dolly's so timid of 'em! " In a moment we were off, and " Rike " taking " Dolly " by the bit, led her past — much to the old aunty's relief. "I dunno who you be," she said to him, " but I'm sure I'm very much obleeged to ye." Another day, while passing through the town of G , we met a Tartar. It was quite early in the morning, and the road none too good. Presently we saw a man coming toward us, driving a flock of sheep. Not wishing to scatter the flock, we dropped off our bicycles and stood aside for them to pass. As the man came nearer we saw that there was one of the sheep which he was not driving exactly, but "wheeling it like a wheelbarrow; that is to say, he had the sheep's hind-legs in his hands, and was making the creature walk before him on his fore legs.

It struck us as being a very odd performance. It was a large ram, with big, curling horns. :' That's one way to drive a sheep! " Rike observed. " Wal, it's a good way," replied the farmer, who was an oldish man in a drilling frock, and a very much sweated and stained palm-leaf hat. " A rather cruel way, I should say," said Rike. "You think so?" queried the old fellow, with a grin and a broad stare at our vehicles. "Yes, I do," exclaimed Rike, somewhat emphatically " Wal, now," drawled the old man, with a quizzical look on his puckered face, " if you think I'd better, I'll let him down. I'll do most anything to obleege sech a nice-looking lot o' young fellers " — and he let the sheep's hind-legs drop. The animal straightened up, stamped one foot, and shook his head, as if the unnatural position he had been in had caused a rush of blood in that direction.

Then he took a step toward us, and before we had the least thought of dodging, gave Rike a tremendous knock which pitched him sprawling into the sand between the wheel-ruts. DOWN EAST ON A WHEEL. 23 The rest of us scrambled to get our bicycles out of the way. And of all the haw-haws, I never heard anything beat that old fellow's in the drilling frock. Rike jumped up, but before he could get off his knees to his feet, the ram took him again from behind, and sent him his whole length. And again that heartless old barbarian doubled up and laughed. One might have heard him half a mile off. THE RAM TOOK HIM AGAIN AND SENT HIM HIS WHOLE LENGTH At this we began lo bestir ourselves to rescue our man. Moses O. seized a fence-pole, and in another moment would have broken the ram's back, had not the old farmer, breaking off" in the midst of his laugh, shouted, " Avast you!

" and running adroitly up, again grabbed the ram's hind-legs. Rike had got up. He was covered with dirt and much ruffled in temper. ' You are a mean old party ! " he exclaimed. " If you were not quite so old and gray, I would punch your head for you! " " O, wal now! " drawled the ram-wheeler. "If ye think best tu, ye needn't stan' fer that a mite. I ain't so old yit that I ask enny savers of ye." He was such a queer, tough old specimen, and so ready for a fracas, that we laughed — all but Wayne. " Come along, Rike," said Moses O., "or you'll get the worst of it again ! " We got our comrade remounted and moved on. The last we saw of the old farmer and his ram, he was wheeling the beast up to a pair of bars leading into a pasture beside the road. Our nearest approach to an accident, which, however, resulted in nothing worse than a ludicrous tumble, happened one afternoon on the old country road in the town of W .

After climbing a pretty steep hill, there is here a long descent to northward. We had to toil up the hill on foot. But as the descent from the top did not look very for midable, we mounted, and with our brakes well in hand, started to run down. At the foot of the descent there is a moderately sharp turn in the road, round a clump of thick white maples; and on the lower side of the turn, just round it, stands a small district schoolhouse. School was in session at the time, and the door stood open. We bore down in grand style, at the rate of a mile in three min utes, or less, and were soon nearing the turn. All would have gone well enough had we not had the misfortune to meet a very large load of hay, just coming round the turn, drawn by a yoke of oxen. We did not see the load till within fifty yards of it.

The road was but a narrow one. There was but one thing for us to do. "Skip the gutter, Charlie! " " Sauve qui peutV "Gee, Buck!" yelled the bare-armed teamster who was driving with a pitchfork. But his gee-ing came all too late to do us any good. DOWN EAST OJV A WHEEL. 27 We were already in the ditch. There was a tangled mass of rank raspberry bushes, bull-thistles, and mugwort across the gutter on the lower side. "Karzy," Moses O., and " No. 6," went into that — on the fly. Stein, a few lengths ahead, brought up in the schoolhouse wood-pile; while the captain went plump into the schoolhouse entry — came very near riding bodily into the arms of the school-mistress, a very comely young woman, who was coming to the door to see what was going on. It was all the work of about three seconds; and meantime, Rike, "who saw his best chance on the other side of the road, had shot along the gutter past the off ox, and went clear of the load, all right.

But his rapid passage frightened the steers. In spite of their driver's yells they sheered suddenly into the little open yard of the schoolhouse, and came near lodging the high load against the house. The wood pile stopped them, too; but the doorway was completely blockaded with the rack-cart and hay, so that our friend Harold and his bicycle were shut in there along with the school-mistress and her pupils for some minutes. What they said to each other has not yet transpired. He did not seem to us to make such prompt efforts to get out as one might have supposed he would under the circumstances. Yet no visible harm was done — to any one; and we parted from our suddenly-formed acquaintance with mutual civilities, some five minutes later. But the captain was observed to look back wistfully, as we trundled away.

At Berwick, where we were very pleasantly entertained over a two days' rain-storm, the old people told us many stories of the early settlement of the town, called by the Indians Netvicha-vannock, and some thrilling: incidents of the Indian war. Here one of the most heroic deeds of American history was performed by a young lady, whose name has been suffered to be forgotten. The savages were menacing Saco, and Captain Wincoln, of Berwick, with all the men of the place, marched to the assistance of the Saco settlers. While they were THE KNOCK-ABOUT CLUB. gone, a party of Indians suddenly attacked the house of John Zozier, where there were gathered for safety, fifteen women and children. These all sat at the table eating supper, when the Indians were seen approaching by a young woman of seventeen or eighteen, who gave the alarm, and, closing the outer door, held it fast, while the others escaped at the rear of the house.

The savages cut through the door with their tomahawks, but still the brave girl held fast, and it was not till one of them had reached in and repeatedly struck her with his knife and hatchet, that they could gain an entrance. The girl fell at her post — dead, as the Indians thought. Finding that the house was empty, and that the others had fled, the savages gave chase, but were only able to overtake two small children, whom they killed on the spot. The girl, who had thus bravelv barred the door, lay senseless for many hours, but was found next day by some of Wincoln's party, who had returned, and was taken to the garrison-house. Ultimately she recovered from her wounds. It is a loss to our history that the name of such a heroine should have been forgotten. Here, and at Scarborough and Falmouth, the Indians committed terrible atrocities.

At the latter place, on the Presumpscot River, remote from neighbors, lived a settler named John Wakely, with his family, in a log-house which he had lately built. Being, as they thought, on good terms with the Indians, they had cleared land and planted crops. Without warning, the house was attacked at noon, one day, by eight savages, and the entire family murdered in the most brutal man ner, with the exception of one little girl, whom they took away into captivity, and who lived with them several years. New Gloucester, a day's ride farther to the north-east, was also the scene of many tragic incidents during the Indian wars. But we shall remember it best from our visit, of an hour or so, to the very inter esting Shaker village there. DOWN EAST ON A WHEEL. 31 At South Paris, where we arrived on the 7th of July, we stopped for a day to visit Mount Mica, famous the world over among mineral ogists for its wonderful red and green tourmalines.

Our comrade Stein had quite looked forward to this trip as one of the "lions" of the tour — for him; and he has prepared a brief history of the locality, which we are permitted to insert. MOUNT MICA. WHAT THE HAMLIN BOYS FOUND THERE. On the last day of November, 1820, two boys, named Elijah Hamlin and Ezekiel Holmes, — names destined later in life to become familiar through out this country, — were searching for minerals along the foot of Streaked Mountain, in the town of Paris, Maine. They were students at the village academy, and had then just begun the study of Mineralogy. The boys had been tramping through the woods all the afternoon, having found little of interest save a few fragments of rose-quartz. Just as the sun was setting, they emerged from the forest upon the brow of a hill facing west.

Here, tired from their long walk, they sat down for a few minutes to rest and enjoy the surpassing beauty of the scenery. The chill of snow was already in the air, and, rapt as the two youths had been in the grandeur of the landscape, a shiver warned them to depart be fore the sunlight faded out. Young Holmes ran down the hill to return to the village. Hamlin was following him more leisurely, when a vivid gleam of green caught his eye flashing from an object amid the loose red dirt, on the root of an upturned tree. Advancing quickly to the spot, he perceived a fragment of a clear, green crystal lying in the loose earth. Its gem-like flash told him that it was no common stone, and he grasped it with a thrill of delight. What wonder that the next moment he made the woodland resound to his excited call after " Zeke" to come back?

And Zeke was not long coming back. At sight of the crystal his keen eye sparkled, and he fell to searching the earth about the root and beneath the leaves with that innate eagerness which always characterizes the born mineralogist. But twilight, rapidlv fading into darkness, descended upon the searchers, rendering one stone indistinguishable from another. " Never mind ! " said Zeke. " We will come up again in the morning." But during the night a storm gathered. At daybreak it was snowing heavily, and a thick white mantle lay on all the surrounding hills. Winter had come ; nor did the snow thaw until the next April. During all these months the two students did not speak to any one of their possible discovery. Often, as the spring advanced, they turned their eyes toward the hill, and as soon as its crest was bare, they set off to visit it aj-ain.

From the tree-root, where Hamlin had found his crystal, they went up to the exposed ledge at the very crest of the hill. Here a rich sight met their astonished eyes. Upon that bare ledge, and in the loose earth about its edges, they found over thirty almost perfect crystals, which from their great beauty and trans parency rank as true gems. They found also a great number of imper fect crystals. In a word, our two students had discovered the now widely famous Mount Mica — so named from the quantities of mica which subsequent blasting has thrown out. " ZEKE ! ZEKE ! COME BACK ! " The crystals were those wonderful green and red tourmalines which have since gone to adorn some of the choicest collections in both Europe and America, and even to be set in kingly diadems. But neither of the boys then knew their value.

Professor Cleveland, of Bowdoin College, was then known as the leading mineralogist of the United States. To him the boys addressed a letter, and inclosed with it some of the smaller crystals. The professor at once replied, assuring them that their specimens were DOWN EAST ON A WHEEL. 33 both rare and valuable. With boyish generosity they made up a package containing some of the finest of the crystals, and sent it to the professor, intrusting it to the late Gov. Lincoln, then a member of Congress, who was about setting off for Washington. At that early day, much of the journey to the national capital had to be performed on horseback. The governor took the package, but either he lost it en route, or else it was stolen from him. It never reached its destination. There is little doubt that by some secret agency these tourmalines found their way into the cabinets of certain European mineralogists.

During the two following years, a great many crystals and fragments were picked up about the ledge. Thus far, however, no attempt had been made to blast. But in the spring of 1823, Cyrus and Hannibal Hamlin (the same who has since been Vice-President of the United States), both younger brothers of Elijah, and then aged thirteen and fifteen, determined to explore the hill and its ledges. As few, if any, specimens could be found around the ledge, they bought a pound of powder, and borrowing some blasting tools, attacked the principal ledge with great spirit. It is no easy task for lads of this age to drill and blast rock. Unless prop er ly held, the drill soon sticks fast in the hole. The safety fuse had not then been invented. All blasts had to be loaded with a wire inserted in the hole, which was afterwards pulled out.

This tiny channel was then primed with powder, which was commonly fired by a train of swingletow, — a dangerous business at best. The two boys drilled five holes in the ledge, which they loaded and blasted out, one after the other. The surface of the ledge had looked gray and weather-worn. But the explosions threw out great pieces of bright colored lepidolite, broad sheets of mica, and glittering fragments of quartz ; and the last blast opened down to a soft spot in the ledge where the rock had become decomposed. Digging in this with the points of their drills, they broke through into a cavity which would have held, perhaps, two or three bushels. This dusty hole was partly filled with what seemed to be sand. Thrusting in his hand, Hannibal groped in the loose stuff a moment, then drew out something which, glittering in his fingers, proved to be a magnificent tourmaline crystal, of a rich green color, and clear as a gem.

"Hurrah ! " shouted the lad. ''Hurrah ! We've found a handsomer one than 'Lige did ! " Well might the boy hurrah. They had found the most beautiful tourma line which the earth has ever yielded, perhaps. It was a perfect crystal, per fect at each faceted extremity, and finely formed. In length it was two and a half inches, by two inches in diameter — a huge, clear, dark-green gem. Scratching away with renewed eagerness, the boys soon emptied the "pocket "of its contents. From it the}' took out over twenty crystals, of varying colors and tints, but mainly red and green. Some of these were fully three inches long and an inch in diameter, banded, or rather clouded, red, white, and green. Of these splendid gems they took out enough to nearly sill a two-quart basket ; while an ox-cart was required to enable them to get home their fine specimens of mica and lepidolite.

Altogether, this "find " far surpassed those found by their older brother, Elijah. The lads were jubilant, for, boy-like, they had prosecuted the blasting less for the love of beautiful specimens than for the money they expected to realize from the sale of the stones. They had learned from Elijah the names of several eminent mineralo gists, both of Europe and America. To these they at once addressed let ters, stating what they had to sell. And from time to time thereafter, Cyrus, who had meanwhile bought out Hannibal's interest, sold the most of the gems. What sums he received for them it is now impossible to ascertain ; for not many years afterwards he removed to Texas, where he died. But it is likely that he received, in those early days, but a comparatively trifling price for the crystals.

This is all that is really known of the fate of those wonderful tourmalines. They were dispersed over the world. Some of the finest are said to be in the famous Imperial Collection of Minerals at Vienna. DOWN EAST ON A WHEEL. 35 In 1825 Professor Shepard, then a young and enthusiastic mineralogist, obtained some fine tourmalines here. And after him, the ill-fated Professor Webster found one or two beautiful crystals. Here Professor Addison Verrill, of Yale College, prosecuted some of his boyhood researches in mineralogy, finding on one occasion a very fine nugget of tin weighing several pounds. A great many persons have searched and blasted the ledges ; and it is believed that crystals might still be obtained by further mining. But nothing obtained here of late can compare with those exquisitely beautiful gems which the Hamlin boys found.

Dr. A. C. Hamlin, a relative of the family, possesses what is probably the finest collection of Mount Mica tourmalines in this country. One of his crystals is remarkable for having a red and green shaft, surmounted at its faceted " point " by a snow-white crown — a veritable queen of crystals. Mount Mica is scarcely a mountain, in the usual sense, but simply a ledgy hill in a pasture. Great heaps of broken stone attest to the vigorous search which later mineralogists have made. On the occasion of our visit I was able to secure nothing finer than a good, clear specimen of lepidolite and a bit of green tourmaline, the fragment of a crystal. But the ledges look as if they might be hugging hidden treasures within their stony bosoms.

Chapter II. Rougher And Wilder Grew The Way

F we had been as expert riders as some of whom we have recently read, who crossed a broad, raging river on the " stringers " of a dismantled bridge, or had we possessed bicycles specially fitted to run on railroads, we might have got forward from this point much more comfortably on the rails of the Grand Trunk Railway. The wagon-road was so bad that it is a lasting monument of what a bicycle can do, that we covered the distance, nine miles, from South to West Paris But a charming bit of scenery repaid us for our effort: Snow's Falls, on the Little Androscoggin River. A farmer living hard by, (at whose place we pulled up for a draught of water,) told us the fol lowing story as to the origin of the name. Over a hundred years ago, when the whites first began to come into this region, two hunters, named Snow and Jackson, went to the Falls one afternoon, either to fish or to set traps.

They came up the left bank of the river, and had been peering about the ledges round the cataract for some minutes, -when they espied three Indians on the other side, sitting on the rocks, with their guns and tomahawks. Both the whites instantly cocked their pieces and took aim at the redskins, but one of the Indians, discovering them at the same moment, started up, and in broken English shouted, "Quarter! Me want quarter! " "Quarter, you red skunk!" cried Snow, contemptuously. "I'll halve ye, and the devil may quarter ye! " With that he fired, and shot the Indian. But one of the other savages, firing at the same instant, mortally wounded Snow himself, who died within a few hours. Jackson escaped. The scenery, both from Mount Mica and hence forward all along our route, was wonderfully good, sometimes really grand, with a certain peculiar and picturesque wildness,which one might travel far to find excelled.

The farmer told us still another story of one of the early settlers here, a rather exciting tale, but one he assured us was true in every particular; and he pointed out the farm where this settler had made his first clearing. I had heard the story previously, or one SNOW'S FALLS ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. much like it, and I think that many writers have made it the foundation for a thrilling back woods tale. The following is the true version, as told in the locality where the adventure occurred. CHASED BY A CATAMOUNT. One spring morning the settler, whose name was Jackson, set off on a twenty-mile tramp to his nearest neighbor's cabin, in what is now the town of Rumford, to procure potatoes with which to plant a burnt patch which he had recently cleared. His route lay through the woods and was marked by a line of "spotted" trees.