Norton,-The Botanical Survey of Maine


   Dr. Y., I had never met before. He is very zealous in botany but lacks
 discretion, and was not entirely the man to have charge of such an expe-
 dition. Mr. Chute I was pleased to meet, a good naturalist and upon
 the whole an amiable man. Mr. Laski, who is a man of some literary
 pretensions, was rather too much out of his element to appear well,
 still he treated me with the utmost consideration. Mr. Cowan, our
 guide, a good-hearted rough fellow I got much attached to. He showed
 me every possible kindness. John Emerson, poor deaf and mute fellow,
 filled with the love of nature but every outlet to his joy closed, save his
 bright speaking eye, kind, patient, enduring John, I shall not soon forget
 you. And George Emerson, too, my little chum who always shared my
 blanket and my cup, who was always trying to do some kind thing, dear
 friend, I hope once again to see your kind smile.
   The itinerary of the Katahdin expedition has been well told in the
account published by Mr. Laski in the Bangor Courier early in
September 1847, which has been reprinted in the Maine Naturalist,
(1927, VII, 38-62), and by Dr. Thurber in the Providence Journal late
in September 1847, also reprinted in the Maine Naturalist, (1926, VI,
134-151).
   This expedition consumed two weeks, the party reaching Bangor
on its return September first. Collecting was done along the way
and on the mountain, which was explored from Mount Russell, its
north-eastern spur, to Monument Peak.
   Upon this peak Dr. Young bestowed the name of Pomola, but
through the obscurity of his medium of publication his name was lost
to view, and fourteen years later Dr. Charles H. Hitchcock bestowed
the same name upon the eastern peak, which still bears that name.'
  For the North Mountain (so called), he used the name of Camel's
Back, and he named the body of water now known as Chimney Pond,
Norris Lake, in appreciation of the labors of Joseph Norris2 who ran
the monument line from the eastern boundary of the State to Mount
Katahdin in 1825, and was probably the first to describe this pond.
  The party collected a large number of the more conspicuous plants
of the mountain, and many of these found resting places in the older
  1 Hitchcock, First Ann. Rept. Scient. Surv., in Sixth Ann. Rept. Sec. Maine Bd.
Agric. 398. In his second annual report, 1862, he again refers to the subject expressing
the erroneous belief that "by a strange coincidence the name Pomola was applied
many years ago by Mr. Young, a botanist, to the same peak to which we thought it
appropriate last year" (348).
  2 In 1825 Joseph C. Norris and son entered upon the task of surveying a base line
for township surveys, due west across the State, from the head of the East Branch of
the St. Croix River also known as Monument Brook, in the town of Amity. This line
which crossed the northern end of Katahdin is commonly known as the "Monument
Line."
  Mr. Norris traversed the mountain for nearly its entire length. His journal was
evidently carefully studied by Aaron Young, In the Land Agent's office. Norris's
description of this pond was published by M. H. Avery, 1928, Appalachia XXI, 39.


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