330 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



son to be the end of May the time we should advise to 

 be selected for your visit delightful brook-fishing may be 

 obtained beneath the dam in the Little Cambridge River, 

 which flows within fifty yards of the hotel. Many and 

 many a morning and evening I have taken here three or 

 four dozen beauties, some of them over a pound, and all 

 game to the last. 



I know no river better suited for the increase of trout, 

 and doubtless at the present time it would swarm with 

 thousands all along its course, but that a selfish being 

 named Abott projected and erected a dam about twenty 

 feet high, to collect water to drive a mill ; and worse, had 

 the inhumanity not even to leave a fish-way ; consequently, 

 Izaak Walton's disciples have to walk many ar wearisome 

 mile up this brook before fish can again be found abundant, 

 and then they are so poor and badly fed that they are al- 

 most unfit for the table. Now the difference between those 

 beneath the dam and those above is doubtless caused by 

 the unfortunate denizens of the upper water being prevent- 

 ed from making their annual visits to Lake Umbagog to re- 

 cruit, or enjoy the cool retreats afforded in its deep waters 

 at that portion of the season when the summer sun pours 

 down its refulgent, heated rays upon the unprotected water. 

 Persons who resided in this locality years ago informed me 

 that, before this impediment on the Cambridge was made, 

 trout swarmed all the way up to the source in ten times 

 the quantity they do now. But why grumble or find fault 

 in this particular instance ? Are such shameful structures 

 not to be found in every section of this and my own land 

 a glaring example of want of forethought, or selfishness, or 

 worse ? But, thank goodness, such abuses in America are 

 about to be stopped ; State legislation has taken the matter 

 in hand, and is determined to enforce such severe penal- 

 ties, that I hope, ere long, to see the temporarily-deserted 



