Bethel to Upton, Me.
1907
July 22
(No 3)
there by a hunter from Newry. Below the Notch and close
to the roadway is a similar pit, circular in shape and evidently
hollowed out by water but now dry. This is called "the jail".
Still further down the river flows through a succession of others,
known collectively as "Screw Auger Falls". All these "Marvels of
nature", as the writers of guide books are given to terming them,
excited the wonder and admiration of very many people who
travel the road to Upton without bestowing much if any notice
on countless other things equally wonderful and infinitely
more beautiful, if somewhat less striking.
  There is a story, once current but now half forgotten, to
the effect that a certain country doctor, on his way to Upon
to visit a patient, was attacked in the Notch, just after
dark, by a Cougar which attempted to spring on him from
a wayside thicket but was repelled by vigorous and well
aimed blows of a heavy whip. This happened in July 1874
when I was staying at the Lake House and saw the
doctor drive up to its front porch with his horse covered with
foam and himself much overwrought by the excitement of his
adventures. No doubt he had met with something unusual in
the notch for he was perfectly familiar with the place and
accustomed to driving through it by night but whether or note
he saw a Cougar is another matter. The quality of my
own testimony relating to the affair will perhaps remind
the reader of that of the man in the old tale who
when ridiculed by some friends for claiming to have seen a
ghost at a woodland spring sought to convince them that
he had not been mistaken by offering to show them the
spring and the pitcher that he had dropped there in
his fright.