THE ANDROSCOGGIN MIVER. 335 



you will be able to proceed, without leaving the steamboat, 

 as far as the commencement of the portage ; but, should it 

 be otherwise, your baggage and self will require to be trans- 

 ferred to boats, to be propelled up stream by pole and pad- 

 dle in the skillful hands of some of the proficient back- 

 woodsmen. 



The trip up the river is worthy all the distance you have 

 wandered. The view is ever changing and ever beautiful. 

 Now you float over some still, dark pool ; next, with labo- 

 rious 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 craft'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 ham- 

 mering 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, perhaps but the other 

 day divested of the egg-shell, yet thus early a proficient 

 in aquatic travel all adding peace to the scene, and suit- 

 able figures for foreground to the picture. 



From this point, where you leave the boats, a portage of 

 four miles occurs, which has to be traversed on foot ; how- 

 ever, the walking is not bad, although too rough for driv- 

 ing. The path is well defined and erratic, one moment 

 pointing direct for the impenetrable woods, the next fol- 

 lowing the margin of the river. Some persons have chris- 

 tened this portion of the Androscoggin " Mad River," a 

 name far from inappropriate, as for more than a mile it is 

 one succession of grand rapids and miniature cascades, boil- 

 ing, surging, and rushing for the placid bosom of Lake Um- 

 bagog. Good fly-fishing can be obtained at low water all 

 along this portion close to the margin, where the water 



