TROUT FISHING IN MAINE. 263 



The trip up the river is worthy all the distance you 

 have travelled. The view is ever changing and ever 

 beautiful : now you float over some still, dark pool ; 

 next, with laborious and slow progress, ascend some 

 seething rapid ; one time the centre of the stream only 

 is navigable, the next moment the brush and branches 

 on the margin grate against your boat's gunwale. A 

 solemn stillness reigns around, only broken by the 

 murmuring of the water, the occasional shrill cry of 

 the fish hawk, or the laborious, incessant hammering 

 of the industrious woodpecker. Again, as you ad- 

 vance, many a wild duck or merganser, on rapid 

 wing, will whistle past, or flutter over the rippling 

 stream, followed by a numerous, inoffensive brood, 

 1 perhaps but the other day divested of the egg-shell* 

 yet, thus early, proficient in aquatic exercise all 

 adding peace to the scene and suitable figures for 

 foreground to the picture. 



From this point, where you leave the boats, a port- 

 age of four miles occurs, which has to be traversed on 

 foot ; however, the walking is not bad, although too 

 rough for driving. The path is well defined and 

 erratic, one moment pointing direct for the impene- 

 trable woods, the next following the margin of the 

 river. Some persons have christened this portion of 

 the Androscogan " Mad River/' a name far from inap- 



