RIVER LIFE. 



235 



of the Androscoggin, " some thirty or forty miles, the country is 

 said to be wonderful for its mountains." 



Respecting the water power and privileges on this river. Col- 

 onel A. J. Stone, to whom I am chiefly under obligations for the 

 facts involved in this part of my work, says, " I doubt whether 

 there is a state in the Union that can show so many as we can 

 on the Androscoggin and its tributaries." 



" There are now three or four water-falls at Rumford, on this 

 river, while anciently there mu.st have been others of greater mag- 

 nitude, for deep holes are seen worn high up on the I'ocky banks, 

 wlicre the waters never ran in modern times. Now the whole 



descent is divided into two principal and two minor falls, the first 

 two being from six to ten feet, the middle seventy feet perpen- 

 dicular, and the fourth twenty feet, while the whole pitch is es- 

 timated at one hundred and eighty feet. It is the middle fall, 

 however, that will attract the attention of the traveler, for there 

 the torrent of water pouring down with the noise of thunder, and 



