334 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



no river better suited for the increase of trout, and doubt- 

 less at the present time it would swarm with thousands 

 all along its course, but that a selfish being named 

 Abott projected and erected a dam about twenty feet 

 high, to collect water to drive a mill ; and worse, had 

 the inhumanity not even to leave a fish-way; conse- 

 quently, Izaak Walton's disciples have to walk many a 

 wearisome mile up this brook before fish can again be 

 found abundant, and then they are so poor and badly 

 fed that they are almost unfit for the table. Now, the 

 difference between those beneath the dam and those 

 above, is doubtless caused by the unfortunate deni- 

 zens of the upper water being prevented from making 

 their annual visits to Lake Umbagog to recruit, or 

 enjoy the cool retreats afforded in its deep waters, at 

 that portion of the season when the summer sun pours 

 down its refulgent, heated rays upon the unprotected 

 water. Persons who resided in this locality years ago, 

 informed me that before tins impediment on the Cam- 

 bridge was made, trout swarmed all the way up to the 

 source in ten times the quantity they do now. But 

 why grumble or find fault in this particular instance ? 

 Are such shameful structures not to be found in every 

 section of this and my own land, a glaring example of 

 want of forethought, or selfishness, or worse ? But, 

 thank goodness, such abuses in America are about to 

 be -stopped ; State legislation has taken the matter in 

 hand, and is determined to enforce such severe penal- 

 ties, that I hope, ere long, to see the temporarily- 

 deserted retreats of the spotted, brilliant-hued, trout 

 again teeming with their numbers, and the placid, 

 sheltered pools, now still and tenantless, boiling with 

 their breaks and rises, as they either roll over in sport, 



