ERROL DAM. 315 



dashed up a slight ascent to the door of a neat frame 

 house standing a hundred feet or so above the river. 

 The Androscoggin, leaving Lake Umbagog some six 

 miles above this spot, flows sluggishly in a black, deep 

 stream to this, its first obstruction. The river is here 

 nearly two hundred feet broad. The dam, being intended 

 solely for timber purposes, is a fine structure, with six 

 sluice-ways through which logs can be passed down. In 

 the running season they are here counted and the toll 

 imposed. The sloping log-ways through the dam are 

 about a hundred feet in length, heavily timbered, with 

 gates at the upper end, which may be entirely closed. 

 The river above the dam is broad, smooth, and flowing 

 gently, with a scarcely perceptible current ; but as it ap- 

 proaches the dam the black surface bends suddenly down- 

 ward with a graceful curve, and the water rushes head- 

 long into the sluice-ways, which it enters some thirty or 

 forty feet below this curve in the surface. On the north 

 side of the river, near the dam, stood the house of which 

 I have spoken. Originally this was designed solely as a 

 place of residence for the lumbermen engaged in work, 

 but the proprietors had added a front building to the old 

 cottage, and our surprise was great when on entering it we 

 found an abundance of clean, neat rooms, simply but beau- 

 tifully furnished, and the whole establishment better in ap- 

 pearance than nine out of ten of the large hotels in our cities. 

 Evening was at hand, and the roar of the river was in- 

 viting. Dupont and myself hastened to unpack our tackle, 

 and went down to the water to try a few casts in the twi- 

 light. The deep basin at the foot of the dam presented 

 the most flattering prospect for trout, and we whipped it 

 for some time, but without a rise. Then we essayed the 

 black water above the dam with equally poor success. 



