NEW ENGLAND AND THE AROOSTOOK. 95 



flows with most devious windings through mountain gorges 

 of the wildest character, which rise in places to the height 

 of % thousand feet. It is liable to sudden freshets ; for in 

 rainy weather every rocky seam and channel contributes a 

 rivulet or torrent to swell its volume, and when in full, im- 

 petuous career, it empties itself into the Androscoggin with 

 a flood that raises its waters so that they set back into Um- 

 bagog Lake for a distance of two miles, having the appear- 

 ance of a river running up stream, back to its source. 



The trout of the Megalloway are very abundant, and aver- 

 age two or three pounds weight. t Anglers usually leave the 

 Grand Trunk Kailway at Stratford, take stage to Colebrook, 

 wagon from there to Errol Falls on the Androscoggin, then a 

 batteau up the river to Durkee's Landing on the Megalloway, 

 and thence up stream a two days journey to Parmachene 

 Falls and Lake. The wagon road from Colebrook follows 

 up the valley of a small stream called the Mohawk, through 

 a gap in the mountain ridge, only less famous than the White 

 Mountain Notch because more remote from traveled route ; 

 thence down the opposite slope through the celebrated " Dix- 

 ville Notch," along a path hewn into the side of the chasm, 

 and just wide enough for one wagon track ; with crags tow- 

 ering perpendicularly above, and the gloomy gulf yawning 

 below, on to the valley of the Androscoggin and the basin 

 of Lake Umbagog. There is very comfortable tavern accom- 

 modation at the several stages of the journey to Durkee's. 



I come now to regions untainted by the odor of lavender 

 or cologne, where " parasols " never venture, and the atmos- 

 phere is freighted with the fragrance of the resinous balsam 

 and pine. Even the axe of the pioneer lumberman is stilled? 

 in the summer days, and the birchen canoe, gliding stealth- 

 ily into the silence and solitude of unfrequented places, 

 frightens a scream of terror from the blue crane that flaps 

 up from the marsh. 



At Mattawamkeag, on the European and North American 

 Kailway, fifty-eight miles from Bangor, where the river of 



