Mount Kineo

It was inspiring to hear the regular dip of the paddles as if they were our fins or flippers, and to realize that we were at length fairly embarked.

Having passed the small rocky isle within two or three miles of the foot of the lake, we had a short consultation respecting our course, and inclined to the western shore for the sake of its lee, for otherwise if the wind should rise, it would be impossible for us to reach Mount Kineo, which is about midway up the lake on the east side, but at its narrowest part, where probably we could recross if we took the western side.

The wind is the chief obstacle to crossing the lakes, especially in so small a canoe.

The Indian remarked several times that he did not like to cross the lakes in littleum canoe, but nevertheless, just as we say, it made no odds to him.

He said one week.

I told him that in this voyage I would tell him all I knew, and he should tell me all he knew, to which he readily agreed.

Mount Kineo, which was generally visible though occasionally concealed by islands or the mainland in front, had a level bar of cloud concealing its summit, and all the mountaintops about the lake were cut off at the same height.

Ducks of various kinds were quite common, and ran over the water before us as fast as a horse trots.

At a tavern hereabouts the hostler greeted our horse as an old acquaintance, though he did not remember the driver.

He said that he had taken care of that little mare for a short time, a year or two before, at the Mount Kineo house, and thought she was not in as good condition as then.

Every man to his trade.

I am not acquainted with a single horse in the world, not even the one that kicked me.

The scenery is not merely wild, but varied and interesting.

Mountains were seen farther or nearer on all sides but the northwest, their summits now lost in the clouds.

But Mount Kineo is the principal feature of the lake, and more exclusively belongs to it.

After leaving Greenville at the foot, which is the nucleus of a town some eight or ten years old, you see but three or four houses for the whole length of the lake, or about forty miles, three of them the public houses at which the steamer is advertised to stop, and the shore is an unbroken wilderness.