TOPOGRAPHY OF COOS COUNTY. 223 



receives this tributary, it flows into Second lake. This lake is two miles 

 and three fourths in length, and in the widest part it is little more than a 

 mile, and the height above the sea is 1882 feet. Its area is about one 

 and three fourths square miles. It is one of the most beautiful of 

 our northern lakes. The graceful contour of its shores, the symmetry of 

 its projecting points, the stately growth of its primeval forests, the carpet 

 of green that is spread along its border and extends through the long 

 vista of the woods, the receding hills and the distant mountains, present 

 a combination of the wild, the grand, and the beautiful that is rarely seen. 

 Near its northern border, besides the Connecticut, it receives two tributa- 

 ries, one from the north-east and one from the north-west. Its outlet is 

 on the west side, near its southern limit ; it is forty feet in width, and has 

 a depth of eighteen inches. Twenty rods from the lake it has a fall of 

 eighteen feet or more ; then its descent is quite gradual, but forms here 

 and there deep eddies. A mile from the lake it becomes more rapid, and 

 rushes down between precipitous walls of rock in a series of wild cas- 

 cades, which continue for half a mile. It receives two tributaries from 

 the west before it flows into Connecticut lake. Here we find a sheet of 

 water exceedingly irregular in its outline. Its length is four miles, and 

 its greatest width two and three fourths, and it contains not far from three 

 square miles. Its general direction is east and west, but near its outlet 

 it turns towards the south. None of these lakes contain islands to any 

 extent. Second lake has only one, and this has two, but they are very 

 near the south-east shore. On the west shore of this lake the country 

 is settled, and the grassy pastures extend down to its border ; but for 

 the most part it is still surrounded by a primeval forest. As many of 

 the neighboring hills are crowned with deciduous trees, particularly the 

 maple, in autumn, when the frost comes and these have put on their 

 crown of beauty, of crimson and scarlet, of yellow and gold, and mingled 

 as they often are with the dark foliage of the spruce and fir, we have a 

 scene which, in brilliancy and beauty, is rarely if ever excelled. There is 

 another element characteristic of this high elevation, for the lake is 1,619 

 feet above the sea. It often happens, when the forest has put on this robe 

 of beauty, that all the neighboring heights are of immaculate whiteness 

 from the frozen mist that clings to every spray of the evergreen foliage. 

 Embraced in the picture are the blue waters of the lake, the belt of 



