but from the junction of the two branches to its mouth, the distance is only 135 miles. It meets the tide water at Bangor, 60 miles from the sea. At this point the tides rise to a height of 17 feet. The river is navigable to Bangor for vessels of all classes, and for small steamers above that place. It receives through the West branch the waters of Chesuncook and Pemadumcook lakes, and through the East branch those of the Seboois lakes. Its upper part affords valuable water power. There are a number of villages and towns on the river. Bangor is the only city on its banks.

The Kennebec River rises in Moosehead Lake, in Somerset county, Maine, and flows southward into the Atlantic Ocean. Its length is 150 miles, and as its total descent in this distance is over 1000 feet, it affords most excellent water power. It is navigable for sloops to Hallowell, 40 miles, and for all vessels to Bath, 12 miles from the sea. It is closed by ice early in December, and remains frozen until early in April. Bath, Hallowell, Augusta, Waterville, and Norridgewock are the principal towns on its shores. The Androscoggin is a tributary of the Kennebec. It rises in Coos county, New Hampshire, and empties into the Kennebec 20 miles from the sea. It is 140 miles long.

The Saco River rises among the White Mountains, in Coos county, New Hampshire, and flowing southeasterly through Maine, empties into the Atlantic near the northeast corner of York county. It is broken in several places by considerable falls, which afford fine water power, and is subject to sudden and dangerous freshets. The last falls are only 4 miles from the sea. Saco, Biddeford, and Hollis are its principal towns.

The Woolastook and Aroostook drain the northern part of the State, and flow into the St. John, a river of New Brunswick.

The State is well supplied with rivers and other streams, which not only afford fine water power, but furnish a means of floating vast quantities of lumber from the interior to the coast.

A number of Lakes are scattered through Maine, some of which are very beautiful. The principal are Umbagog, Sebec, Chesuncook, Schoodic, Baskahegan, Long, Portage, Eagle, Madawaska, Millikonet, and Sebago.

Moosehead Lake is the largest in the State. It is situated between Somerset and Piscataquis counties, and is very irregular in shape. It is about 35 miles long, and ten miles across at its widest point. The waters are very deep, and abound in trout. The scenery is wild and

beautiful. On the west side Mount Kineo overhangs the water at a height of 600 feet, and affords a view of great but wild beauty. An hotel has been erected about midway, for the accommodation of travellers. Numerous islands stud the lake, which is navigated by steamers engaged in towing lumber to the Kennebec River, which forms the outlet.

The surface of the State is generally hilly and diversified. Towards the coast it is level, but rises towards the interior. A chain of detached mountains, supposed to be an extension of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, crosses the State from west to northeast, terminating in Mars Hill on the border of New Brunswick. These peaks rise to a considerable elevation, and are very beautiful.

Mount Katahdin, 5385 feet high, is the best known, as well as the most picturesque. It is situated in the eastern part of Piscataquis county, and is frequently visited by artists and the more daring tourists. The other peaks are the Saddleback, Bigelow, Abraham, North and South Russell, and the Haystack.

The Forests of Maine furnish an immense amount of valuable lumber, and large numbers of hardy men are employed in cutting and floating the logs down the streams. The great forests lie in the upper part of the State, around the sources of the Kennebec, Penobscot, Aroostook, and Woolastook rivers. Mr. Charles Lanman thus pleasantly describes them :

"Their extent can only be realized by fixing the mind upon the whole northern half of the State, which they cover with their sombre green, and by remembering the fact that no less than four splendid rivers have their birth in this great wilderness-the St. Croix, the Penobscot, the Kennebec, and the Androscoggin. According to such figures as we have been able to collect, the number of saw-mills and other lumbering machines in operation on the above rivers, just before the rebellion, was nearly 900, the number of men employed about 17,000, and of horses and oxen perhaps 10,000; while the towns which are, to a great extent, supported by the lumbering business are Calais, Bangor, Augusta, and Brunswick, as well as Portland. The predominating tree in the wilderness under consideration, as is the case in Minnesota and Wisconsin, is the white pine, but the hemlock, the fir, and the spruce are also abundant in all its borders. It is said that fifty years ago specimens of the pine were found in Maine which attained the height of more than 200 feet, but in these times it is but seldom that we find a tree exceeding 150 feet in length. The grand

old monarchs of the land would seem to have perished with grief on beholding the ravages of man. But there is an aristocracy existing in these woods at the present day, for it has been observed that there are different classes of trees-families of nobility clustering together in one place while the more plebeian varieties congregate in communities by themselves. Were it not for the changing seasons and its living creatures, the monotony of this forest scenery would be well nigh unbearable; but summer fills every sunny nook with its bright flowers, and winter scatters everywhere the fantastic creations of the frost and snow. It is in these solitudes that the bold and hardy Penobscot Indian hunter tracks the moose and the deer, fights the bear in his den, decoys the gray wolf, and sets his traps for the wild cat