INFLUENCE OF THE FORESTS ON WATER POWER. 23 



Along the mountain streams of the Saco extensive lumbering opera- 

 tions have been carried on. Recently the large paper and pulp com- 

 panies have begun to cut clean extensive areas on the high slopes. 

 Three of the largest companies are now at work on the Saco streams, 

 and one of them has built recently 12 miles of railroad up the Swift 

 River to facilitate the handling of logs. Another lumber railroad has 

 been constructed up the valley of Rocky Branch into a fine stand of 

 spruce timber, one of the last large bodies of virgin spruce remaining 

 in the mountains. 



Because of the small areas of lake surface, the upper Saco basin, 

 like that of the Connecticut, is more directly influenced by forest 

 destruction than the Merrimac or the Androscoggin. Its water 

 powers are very extensive and valuable. At Saco and Biddeford, at 

 the head of navigation, a fall of 40 feet occurs, where 3 cotton mills 

 and a sawmill utilize about 5,500 horsepower. Eight miles above, at 

 Union Falls, 15 feet of fall is utilized; at Salmon Falls, a little higher, 

 a fall of 20 feet. Still higher, at Bar Mils and Bonny Eagle, there 

 are good powers which are only partly utilized. Still farther up 

 the stream, at Hiram, 45 miles from the sea, is the largest power on 

 this river. Here the river falls 72 feet within a distance of 900 feet, 

 but the power is little used. 



The Saco powers offer attractions to manufacturers, but it is likely 

 that few will establish large mills upon this river until the effect of the 

 logging operations on the mountain slopes is more clearly demon- 

 strated. 



ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER. 



The Androscoggin drainage basin has a higher general elevation 

 than any other in New England, and its lake surface is larger, covering 

 one-seventeenth of its entire watershed. Its water powers, therefore, 

 are very large, being three times those of the Merrimac. At Berlin, 

 N. H., and at Rumford Falls, Me., paper mills, among the largest in 

 the world, have been erected recently, and at Rumford Falls the 

 horsepower still unutilized gives promise of continued large invest- 

 ments. The river is formed, 110 miles from the sea, by the union of 

 the Magalloway River and the outlet of Umbagog Lake, the lowest of 

 the great Rangeley lake system. At this point, Errol, N. H., a large 

 dam diverts the water from the Magalloway into Umbagog Lake, 

 which thus becomes a vast storage reservoir. The drainage basin of 

 the Magalloway is 420 square miles, and the water level of Umbagog 

 Lake varies 12 feet between high and low water stages. The lake is 

 about 100 square miles in area and its great storage capacity is further 

 increased by dams at the outlets of the other large lakes above Umba- 

 gog. These lakes are Richardson, with a water level variation of 22 



[Cir. 168] 



