178 RIVER LIFE. 



made of Grand Lake in particular, which is about twenty-five 

 miles long by eight wide at its greatest extent, romantically diver- 

 sified in the northern part with beautiful islands, deep coves, and 

 far-reaching points of land, covered with dense and rather under- 

 sized trees. The shores, east and west, are composed for the 

 most part of immense granite rocks, rising very abruptly on the 

 southwest to a considerable elevation, covered with a heavy 

 growth of majestic Pine, Hemlock, and Spruce-trees. 



Beautiful white sand beaches, which run outward with a very 

 gradual descent for many rods into the lake, afford a most luxu- 

 rious bathing-ground, where probably the young savages of for- 

 mer generations gamboled and indulged in aquatic sports. 



Not many years since, an unbroken forest stretched abroad over 

 a vast area of country, of which this lake formed a central point. 

 The pervading silence, which rested like night over this vast wil- 

 derness, was only broken by the voice of the savage, and the dis- 

 cordant bowlings of wild beasts. But within a few years the ax 

 of the pioneer has leveled large tracts of forest, and thus opened 

 the virgin soil to the sun's germinating rays, so that now may be 

 seen skirting the shores of the lake, north and northwest, culti- 

 vated fields, relieving the solitude which once reigned there. The 

 gray-haired red man of past generations knew this lake by the 

 name Madongamook, which signified " Great grandsires," and 

 owes its origin to the following circumstance : From time im- 

 memorial it is said that some of the aborigines made the imme- 

 diate vicinity of this lake's outlet a permanent annual " setting- 

 down place," or head-quarters. Here their ancestors gathered 

 around the council-fire for uncounted generations. Hence this 

 sheet of water was called Great-grcat-grandsire's Lake, of wliich 

 Grand Lake is an abridgment. 



The author entertains many pleasant reminiscences of former 

 visits to this lake. To use the language of the red man, he has 

 spent many pleasant " moons" on the shores of Madongamook, 



