LAKE UMBAGOG. 367 



sport, and free independent life enjoyed. The State of 

 Maine being of considerably larger proportions than 

 England and Scotland together, it is desirable that the 

 particular locality should be mentioned Seventy miles 

 from the thriving seaport of Portland, along the Grand 

 Trunk line of railroad, will be found on the map the 

 picturesque, clean, flourishing village of Bethel ; twenty- 

 seven miles north from it, Lake Umbagog. Here you 

 have the last settlement, and by following up the Andro- 

 scoggin river, which enters the top of the last-mentioned 

 lake, you get into a perfect labyrinth of lakes and ponds, 

 united together by brawling streams, only navigable by the 

 lumberman's flat or Indian's birchback. On all sides 

 precipitous mountains rise, covered with pine-trees where 

 there is a possibility of their clinging, or immense boulders, 

 to all appearance ready to roll from their resting-place 

 into the waters beneath. And here in this vast solitude, 

 free from cares, we made our home ; fishing or hunting by 

 day, and sleeping such sleep upon piles of hemlock as 

 seldom is enjoyed on feather beds (that is, at the end of 

 the fly season) ; for though the bears might growl around, 

 the grey wolf give us a proof of his vocal powers, or the 

 weird note of the loon come shrilly over the waters, still 

 all formed but a lullaby to make us rest the better. 



In fishing the rivers of all the wild lands of the extreme 

 northern portion of the United States and the Dominion 

 for trout or salmon, little or no sport will be experienced 

 by the angler until the snow water has run off; in fact I 

 do not believe the latter fish will enter a river that has not 

 got rid of that addition. We got to our fishing ground 



