XI. 



ON A MOUNTAIN BROOK. 



The Pemigewasset flows out from Profile Lake, a swift 

 brook, receiving at almost every fifty rods the water of a 

 greater or less cold spring, and by the time it crosses the 

 Plymouth Road, five miles down the valley, is a strong 

 stream. In traveling this distance it descends several 

 hundred feet, and the entire course is in dense forest, ex- 

 cept a few rods of open country at the Lafayette clearing. 

 Its water is of that pure transparency which characterizes 

 a few of our American mountain brooks. You can see 

 the bottom at ten feet depth about as clearly as if look- 

 ing through air. 



After crossing the road it lapses along over a pebbly 

 bottom for a fourth of a mile, and then plunges into a 

 deep rocky ravine, cascade after cascade, falling some 

 three or four hundred feet in less than two hundred rods, 

 until it reaches "the Pool." Deep holes abound among 

 the rocks all along the course. But it is of no use to try 

 fly-fishing on this river, for, in the first place, there is no 

 chance for a cast, and, in the second place, the trout will 

 not rise to a fly at any season of the year. Perhaps this 

 is due to the marvelous clearness of the water, but I will 

 not undertake to assign a reason. 



Many visitors at the Profile House have fished the river 

 down to the bridge. Few have attempted to go through 



