novel scene. This floating island finally brought up against the land on the north of the bridge, after a voyage of about a quarter of a mile, and remained there some time an interesting object much frequented by delighted boys and curious. observers.

Besides the prominent features already described, the shores of this ancient town, both on the ocean and river sides, were conveniently diversified and indented with points, coves, and inlets, which may be cursorily enumerated. Jameson's Point, on the borders of Camden, is a considerable projection separating Clam Cove in that town from Rockland harbor; from thence southerly to Ulmer's Point is an indentation early named Lermond's Cove, but called by the Indians Catawamteak, or Great-landing-place. Proceeding on, wel pass Crockett's Point and Ingraham's Point; all in the present city of Rockland, to the Head of the Bay, South Thomaston. Here the shore bends easterly at less than a right angle, to the extremity of Owl's Head; from which a line drawn north-westerly to Jameson's Point will enclose Owl's Head Bay or Rockland harbor including the points and coves before mentioned. Doubling the promontory southwesterly through Owl's Head Harbor, we pass on the left Munroe's Island, containing 180 acres, which derives its name from Hugh Munroe, who early settled and spent his days there, and Sheep Island of 74 acres; both woody and at present if not generally uninhabited. Continuing in the same direction, we come to Ash Point and the small Island of that name, so called from the trees which formerly abounded there; thence, more westerly, we approach the mouth of the Wessaweskeag between Spalding's Point on the N. E. and Thorndike Point on the N. W., having passed on the right the peninsula of Ballyhac, and, within the river's mouth, Spalding's Island, if island it may be called, which at low water is united to the main land or Spalding's Point. From hence to the town of St. George, there is no prominent landmark. On the George's River side, passing up, we find Simonton's Point jutting boldly out and forming the lower boundary of the broad expanse or basin usually denominated the Bay. Near this point are Cat Island and Church's Rock, which received their names from a practical joke of some sailors who, having among them one by the name of Church whom they usually made a butt of, offered to bet when bantering him on his want of strength, that the cat on board could out-pull him. The bet being accepted and judges appointed, Church was placed upon the rock and the cat upon

The dupe not per

the island, with a line attached to each. ceiving that the line, in a loop of which the cat's neck was inserted, extended further on into the hands of three or four stout fellows, feeling sure of victory braced himself up for a strong pull, when the word was given, and he was instantly plunged backward into the briny element. So, he got a ducking, his companions a laugh, and the island and rock their names.

Above the Bay and at the exit of Mill River, are extensive flats, capable, if properly diked, of becoming one of the finest pieces of land in the region. Here, opposite the mouth of Mill River, is what is called "the Turn," where a pier or beacon has been erected to assist vessels in their passage up and down, and where the river's channel bends N. Westerly at a right angle. Passing up, in a W. or N. W. direction, we leave the village portion of Thomaston with its wharves, ship-yards, and the Knox mansion, on our right, and on our left the commanding height of Watson's Point, till a short distance above the toll-bridge we come to the Narrows. Here the course of the river by another right angle shifts to the S. W. through a passage so confined between precipitous ledges as to cause a violent rush of water at every tide, presenting an exhilerating spectacle to the beholder, and a formidable obstruction to the coasting vessels, which, formerly, before the lumber failed, used to pass constantly to and from the landings in Warren. From the head of these Narrows, the course of the river is again N. Westerly, to the original bounds of Warren; shortly above which it receives the waters of Oyster River, which stream several times crosses the old line of Thomaston, and the Eastern branch of which, after leaving Camden, lies almost wholly within the ancient town, now Thomaston and Rockland.

The climate of the place is generally allowed to be a healthy one; but from the lack of records few data are found from which to deduce any very accurate results. According to the published returns of the city undertaker of Rockland for the last five years, the mortality compared with the number of inhabitants given in the 8th census, is as follows, viz. :—1858, 106 deaths, equal to one in every 69 inhabitants; in 1859, 83, or one in 88; in 1860, 102, or one in 72; in 1861, 111, or one in 66; and in 1862, 103, or one in 71; making a total in five years of 505, and the very favorable yearly average of one in 73. This, being a list of interments only, does not of course include those who have died at sea and in foreign lands, except when brought home

for burial. During the same years, according to a private list kept by Hon. B. Fales, in which it is not improbable that many infants may have escaped his notice, the number of deaths in Thomaston was in 1858, 43, or one in 72; in 1859, 17, or one in 181; in 1860, 11, or one in 280; in 1861, 44, or one in 70; and in 1862, 46, or one in 67; making a total in five years of 161, and the still more favorable yearly average of one in 96. No list of deaths in South Thomaston having been found, no comparison can of course be made. Probably the different sections of the old town differ but little in the health and longevity of the people; though an opinion is somewhat prevalent that Rockland, especially the lime-burning district, is in a great measure exempt from diphtheria, and perhaps other putrid diseases, on account of the copious exhalations of carbonic acid from the lime-kilns. When in 1832 the cholera had caused a widespread panic through the country, the people there were told. by an aged man from Waldoboro', of German descent, that they need have no fear, "the cholera can't come here, while the lime-kilns are kept going." But what foundation there is for this idea remains to be tested. Rockland is more exposed to the easterly winds, and Thomaston to the southwesterly; both of which being surcharged with vapor from the ocean are very trying in the colder months to feeble constitutions. Epidemics sometimes prevail in one of the three municipalities, whilst the others are exempt, and vice versa. For the only register of the weather which the author has been able to find kept in either of the sections, the reader is referred to Table XI.

The primitive people who frequented these woods and waters, as far as we can judge from the absence of buryinggrounds and other memorials, had no permanent residence in this particular locality. Few monuments of their existence here have come to our knowledge, though formerly frequenting the Fort in such great numbers. A stone instrument, worked out in the form of a wedge, was found, not many years back, in the garden of Mr. Stetson in Knox street, Thomaston; and other stone instruments, such as mortars, chisels, arrow and spear heads, have been picked up in different places. On the eastern bank of the George's, at the head of the Narrows, was found, stuck in among the earth and rocks, an iron tomahawk or hatchet, formed, not with the modern eye common to our axes, but with one made by drawing out and turning over the head of the instrument, after the manner of the French at the time of their earliest

explorations and settlements in this country, and which were the first, it is said, to supersede among the Indians the use of those made by themselves of stone. On the Gilchrist farm in St. George, opposite the old stone garrison house in Cushing, many years ago, a gun-barrel and lock, together with a human skeleton, were found embedded in the mould near the surface of the ground; but whether belonging to some Indian, or white man, no evidence remained to determine. At the mouth of the Wessaweskeag some arrow heads and other instruments of stone have been picked up at different times; and at that village, on the farm of Asa Coombs, Esq., a flat piece of soft granite, some two or three feet across, was found with several figures of arrows carved on its sides to the depth of one-eighth of an inch or more. On Spalding's Island, Capt. H. Spalding remembers to have frequently found skulls and iron tomahawks. On Dix Island, which lies about three miles distant, an ancient burying-ground was recently discovered, in which many skeletons, much decayed, seem to have been buried in a circle, with their feet pointing inwards toward the centre, though in somewhat confused and indistinct condition from decay and time. Some of these skulls, now in the cabinet of the Thomaston Natural History Society, were found entire; and one leg-bone, sound enough to be measured, was ascertained to be some inches longer than those of the tallest persons among us. When Gen. Knox was repairing and enlarging the house built by Col. Wheaton in Wadsworth street, the workmen in digging for an enlargement of the cellar, found, buried under the front door-steps, a number of bones which on examination proved to be those of a human skeleton. The rumor of it, spreading through the neighborhood, brought together a crowd of people who began to task memory and tradition to discover whose remains they might have been. It was remembered that a cooper formerly employed here had left the place no one knew when, and not having been heard of afterwards, was now supposed by some to have been murdered and concealed here. Others, and among them Gen. Knox, judged from the appearance of the bones that they must have been deposited there at a much earlier period, and that they were those of some Indian there entombed before the building of the house. The mystery concerning them, however, together with a peculiar echo which in certain situations seemed to proceed from the house, preyed upon the imaginations of the credulous, and caused it for a time to be called the Haunted House.

A keen observer may also trace memorials of the former

presence of these aboriginal people, in the numerous clamshell deposits which were formerly conspicuous, and are still to be seen, where not disturbed by cultivation, along the eastern bank of the George's in South Thomaston. These heaps or little mounds of a shell-fish which still abounds in the locality, were in all probability gradually accumulated by Indian families who resorted here for subsistence, and encamped for long intervals when the hunting season was over or food from other causes became scarce. Farther down the river, on the Hawthorn farm in Cushing, is a similar but much larger deposit of the same kind, indicating a more numerous encampment and perhaps a permanent Indian village. This deposit, in various stages of decay from the perfect shell at the surface to the black mould into which it has crumbled at the base, is about three rods wide, fourteen rods long, and from one to ten feet deep, situated on a beautiful sheltered plat looking towards the sun, and is, in the opinion of a good observer, the accumulation of ages.' * But though axes and other implements of stone are frequently found there, we do not learn that any burying-place or other evidence of a permanent residence there, has been discovered.

These meagre relics are all that now remain of the once powerful tribes that fished in these waters, pursued the bear and moose across these grounds, strove to outwit the beaver along these green meadows, and stoutly contended with our intruding race for mastery and possession here.

*Rey. D. Cushman, in the Christian Mirror of Jan. 26, 1864: -- who informs me that a spring of fresh water is usually found near such deposits.