262 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



about and look for the White Mountains,* and if the 

 day is clear, ample will be your recompense, for, 

 towering high above all other contestants, they frown 

 gloriously over the landscape, softened into a dreamy 

 reality by distance, and furrowed on their summits by 

 lines of virgin snow, reflecting a thousand brilliant 

 prismatic colourings. But the irrevocable pace of 

 time glides on, and pleasure flits with rapid stride. 

 Our primitive boat now appears to head direct on 

 shore, and so we advance till, when within a few 

 yards of the rocks, the helm is put hard down, and we 

 quickly turn to the left and enter the Androscogan, up 

 whose waters a most charming vista is beheld, the 

 drooping limbs of the trees on either side playfully 

 kissing the rippling stream, and the irregularly formed 

 rocks splitting the water, and, diverting its course in 

 tangent lines, making many a miniature whirlpool 

 or gurgling eddy, the haunt and breeding-place of 

 innumerable trout. If the river is sufficiently high 

 you will be able to proceed, without leaving the steam- 

 boat, as far as the commencement of the portage ; but, 

 should it be otherwise, your baggage and self will 

 require to be transferred to boats, to be propelled up 

 stream by pole and paddle in the skilful hands of some 

 of the proficient backwoodsmen. 



* Mount Washington is six thousand feet high. 



