KViT---JV-»AA.-. 



118 



GTIjc .farmer's iHontljly llisitor. 



Cooking — some carried kegs and firkins — some 

 hunting guns and pouches — others cane poles 

 and fish lines, and others buffaloes and blankets. 

 It is very extraordinary, so abundant are the lake 

 trout at some points, that these naturally shy 

 and scarce fishes were baited and hooked taster 

 than minnows and horned pouts could be taken 

 from a common prolific mud pond in the best of 

 angling. Our heroes caught as many as they 

 could cook and eat, and brought away corned 

 and salted as many pounds as they could bear 

 off. 



The account presented by a memorandum 

 from one of the travellers of this country of 

 lakes with singular Indian names may be inter- 

 esting to persons who as yet have but faint ideas 

 of the extent and intrinsic value of the lands yet 

 to "be opened for settlement in the smaller Gran- 

 ite State bordering upon the more extended 

 westerly limits of the Pine Tree State stretching 

 hundreds of miles still further north and east. 

 The IMargallaway river, which may be properly 

 regarded as the more direct commencement of 

 the Androscoggin, having it sources at the head 

 of the Indian stream country of New Hampshire 

 comes down all the way to the outlet of the lakes 

 the distance of nearly fifty miles: into it from 

 the west discharge the waters of the lower and 

 the upper Diamond streams nearly of the size of 

 the main branch, making an open country level 

 of considerable extent north-west of the Dustin 

 mountain. Connected with the Margallaway 

 over against the lake Connecticut near the Maine 

 line is another lake about the same size: the 

 Margallaway, excepting at its source and near its 

 confluence with the lake waters, all which 

 united constitute the Androscoggin below, has 

 its course continuously a little way east of the 

 New Hampshire line ill Maine. Coming in from 

 Umbagog lake about two miles above Bragg's in 

 a short channel at right angle, the waters of the 

 lakes discharge themselves iuto the Margallaway. 

 In ever so large quantities coming down the 

 united waters of the Androscoggin never rise but 

 a few feet at Errol : they back in from the 

 Margallaway raising the level of the lower Um- 

 bagog lake and its surrounding meadows and 

 marshes. The lakes, all of which excepting a 

 part of Umbagog are in the State of Maine, 

 stretch across the width of Orford into Franklin 

 county running up beyond the New Hampshire, 

 north end and make the channel from one to the 

 other of that stream called the Androscoggin. 

 To the eastward are the sources of the Dead 

 river discharging itself as a branch of the Ken- 

 nebeck, which also has its lakes up in the wild- 

 erness in the north part of Franklin county. To 

 the westward the Margallaway is so far north, 

 that the Canada waters of Arnold's river, which, 

 running through the lake Megantic, afterwards 

 becomes the La Loup or Chaudiere, forming 

 many French settlements in Lower Canada, and 

 discharging itself into the St. Lawrence just 

 above Quebec, come down south with the 

 boundary line of Canada for a considerable 

 distance. 



Of the several lakes connecting the Andros- 

 coggin with the Margallaway branches (all of 

 them upon the former) only the lower or Umba- 

 gog lake lies in any part over the New Hamp- 

 shire line, and this about one-third of its extent. 

 This lake is ten miles long with an average of 

 one anil one-fourth miles in width : it comes 

 down south the whole width of Errol, leaving a 

 small isolated tract of land in New Hampshire, 

 cut off in Maine by Township Letter B. — an 



island flowed all around at the highest water 

 floods. Upon this point of land in New Hamp- 

 shire, shut out from any road, and only accessi- 

 ble by water communication, three families have 

 settled down on farms which are seen from a 

 distance on the high ground of Letter B. look- 

 ing backward: the settlers are two brothers by 

 the name of Stone and n Mr. Cummiugs, late 

 from Otisfiehl, Maine. 



From Umbagog lake our travellers proceeded 

 over a carrying place of four miles by Tump- 

 line pond to the Richardson lake, a series of 

 hays, coves and inlets, sixteen miles in length 

 and averaging between one and six miles in 

 width : the several broad bays of this lake hear 

 the names of \Veloklenebacook,Molcahulamutik, 

 and Aramuntahook. Near the centre of the lake 

 is No. 4, Range 1, Maine, where the New Hamp- 

 shire Merrimack Company built mills, farm- 

 houses, barns and mechanics 1 shops and cleared 

 many acres about ten years ago. The same 

 company got in large quantities of timber logs ; 

 some of which, after a lapse of time and sacri- 

 fice of the whole expenditure to the owners, 

 found their way down over the various falls to 

 Brunswick, near the sea, where they were man- 

 ufactured in the saw mills. To accommodate 

 this township an avenue through a valley of the 

 mountain coming down to Andover, in Maine, 

 was laid out and made a good and passable road. 

 With the abandonment of the settlement fur all 

 present farming or lumbering objects, the ave- 

 nue and road itself has been abandoned so as to 

 be at present impassable. The township is now- 

 said to be the property of a Mr. Goodridge of 

 Naples and Mr. Little of Portland : it is estima- 

 ted at 24,000 acres of land, much of which is 

 intervale. Our voyageurs over the lakes found 

 the high grass standing here at the rate of three 

 tons of hay to the acre: the soil of the cleared 

 lands is excellent. For farming purposes mere- 

 ly, if accessible to the seaboard and the settled 

 country below as it may and will become, this 

 township might be worth the whole price paid 

 for it under the ruinous speculation. The house 

 is occupied by a single family, whose head, a 

 Mr. Rich, has taken up his abode here on suffer- 

 ance. This was the only family seen and visited 

 during the four days absence of the young men: 

 Mr. Rich lives there as a hunter: his wife saw 

 no woman from the last fall for more than five 

 months. Of the fruits of his last winter hunt- 

 ing and trapping were twenty-seven loupcerviers 

 or large wild-cats. Upon the Richardson lake 

 is Metalluck point, the residence of an almost 

 solitary Indian chief of that name: he died 

 there about two years ago, and his grave and 

 that of his wife mark the last of the living abo- 

 riginals located there. 



Still above the Richardson is the Mooseeluc- 

 magnutec lake, from sixteen to eighteen miles 

 long and from two to six miles wide ; and fur- 

 ther above is the Kupsncktuck, four miles long 

 and one mile wide. Bordering this is Rangely 

 lake, also four miles by one : to this last come 

 down Great Keunebago and Little Kennebago 

 lakes, being those nearest the head waters of 

 Kennebeck turned towards the Androscoggin. 



Our adventurers represent the land around 

 the lakes as generally rising in swells, covered 

 with hard wood at the higher points, but cellar, 

 pine, spruce and hemlock in great size and 

 abundance at the lower levels. 



About twenty-two miles north of Bragg's over 

 the Maine side and between the Margallaway 

 waters and the lakes, within the limits of Letter 



B. is Mount Escoos, a very respectable sized 

 high mountain. 



Neither in Maine or New Hampshire is the 

 population numerous. Letter B. below Errol 

 and against Cambridge has thirty families, not 

 more than it had eight years ago. No. 5 First 

 Range, up the Margallaway road, has twenty-five 

 families, a greater number than all beside north 

 in Maine. In New Hampshire, the distance of 

 more than fifty miles on the east line of this 

 north part of the State, besides Errol, Cam- 

 bridge on the road coming down from the notch 

 to the Maine line on the shores of the Umbagog 

 lake has four or five new settlements, and one 

 good farm adjoining Letter B. near the line 

 stone marked nearly thirty years ago by Hon, 

 .Messrs. John VV. Weeks and Rufus M'Intire as 

 dividing the two States. This town of Cam- 

 bridge on its westerly side is intersected by the 

 Androscoggin which runs from Errol to Shel- 

 hurne where that town unites with Maine nearly 

 fifty miles in New Hampshire: a mill stream 

 running nearly through its centre leaves Cam- 

 bridge a fine township : near this centre the 

 " burnt ground " easy to the plough and without 

 rocks presents temptations to settlement. 



Above Errol in New Hampshire Wentworth's 

 and the College Grant No. 2 have only two 

 or three families each : these are connected 

 with other isolated settlers in the State of 

 Maine. 



The ed'tor was especially sorry that he had 

 not been in season to make one of the number 

 of the lake expedition. Feeble although he was 

 in health, he had previously on the same journey 

 performed the feat of making his way alone, 

 having sought out a single attendant, into the 

 bosom of the mountains eastward of the Great 

 Haystack to the upper camp of the Lumber 

 king from Maine, near the sources of the larger 

 branch of the Merrimack : he found he could, 

 so far as a day's fatigue was concerned, better 

 endure the lake tour; and he wanted the ability 

 to describe the whole country from what his 

 own eyes had witnessed. He learnt from the 

 travellers what he had not before realized that 

 the waters of the lakes laid far out of a level : 

 from the Mooseelncmaguntick to the Richardson 

 lakes the fall was thirty feet ; and from that to 

 the Umbagog it was forty feet. Below Umbagog 

 to Errol at the foot near the new bridge the fall 

 is thirty feet; and below that three and a half 

 miles further, there are twenty-five feet falls 

 more. Each and all of these falls — those be- 

 tween the lakes being in some instances precipi- 

 tous — will present such a water power as would 

 be most highly valued in any settled part of 

 New England. The river at Bragg's, coming 

 out of the lively bosom of the deep lakes in 

 pellucid whiteness, never freezes: the quantity 

 of water, rising and falling only a trifle, is al- 

 ways abundant. 



As we had not the pleasure of going in a row 

 boat many miles over the lakes, on invitation 

 we consented to an expedition, which could be 

 performed in a few moments, in a boat over the 

 rapids near Bragg's. The river falls fifteen feet 

 in passing some twenty-five rods under the 

 bridge at Errol : it is a rapid passing off nearly 

 in an inclined plain broken by protruding rocks 

 over which the waters nearly across the rapid 

 stream dash down in white foam. Looking 

 down as we came to the head of the chasm, at 

 an earlier age and stronger attachment and hold 

 on the world, making life of more value, or else 

 fear taking stronger hold in youth than in ado- 



