222 CRANBERRY LAKE. THE OSWEGATCHIE. 



seasons of the year, when logs are to be floated down to the 

 mills in the settlements; and the flow is regulated by blocks 

 placed above each other in a strong, framed sluice way, and 

 which are put in or hoisted out, by machinery, as the water 

 is to lie raised or lowered. It makes the lake, in fact, a 

 large reservoir, greatly enlarging it. setting the water back 

 in the streams, into the coves and bays and over the low 

 lands, and everywhere drowning and killing the trees on 

 the Hooded lands and along the shore. The ghostly forms of 

 leafles- trees. Stretching their helpless arms aloft, stand in 

 groups and phalanxes here and there in the wide water-. 

 and a heavy, ugly fringe of like dead trees lines all the 

 shores; while trunks and limits and uptoiii stumps, tossed 

 and ground and woven together by the waves among the 

 standing trees, make a landing exceedingly dith'cult. In 

 front of our own camp, the labor of two men for a day was 

 necessary to make an opening both safe and ample for our 

 use. The scenery, of course, is seriously impaired. The 

 low descending fringe of green, seen on other lakes coming 

 down to Ihe clear, open water's ed-e. is here wanting; and 

 the eye grows weary of dead tree tops and drowned forests. 

 But on nearlv every side the grand old hills and mountain 

 brows lift themselves up with coronal fronts of forest 

 green: the bright waters and wavelets gurgle and murmur 

 around the rapid craft of the hunter and the fisherman, and 

 the balm and purity of the perfect air of the forest are here 

 as elsewhere a continual delight. 



