Lake Umbagog.
1907
August 7
(No 2)  
  Cambridge River below the Forks is a devious stream. Indeed it has
few straight reaches more than fifty yards in length and still fewer
which exceed one hundred yards. There are places where the
boatmen may save nearly half a mile of paddling by dragging
his canoe over a strip of land only a few rods in width.
Most of the turns are sharp and at many of them this river 
doubles back on its course and flows in a direction nearly or quite
opposite to that which it follows just above. Alva tells
me that the wooded swamp lying between the Forks and the Mill
extends only a mile north and south and a mile and a
quarter east and west, yet the river runs fully four miles
in traversing it in a generally westerly direction. The
beauty and interest of this little stream are greatly enhanced by these meanderings. One is ever
tempted further and still further on, lured by the
charms of expectancy as to what the next turn may reveal and
seldom disappointed when it spins into view for no two reaches
are just alike and each successive one seems more attractive
than the last. There is, moreover, to the sportsman or the
ornithologist, the ever present hope of
finding, just beyond the bend which he is approaching, some
bird or other animal of which he is in quest. Nor is he
likely to be long disappointed for one cannot follow the river far
at any season when the water is
free from ice without seeing Ducks, Great Blue
Herons, Kingfishers, Hawks, and very many smaller birds of various kinds
while the chances of coming upon Partridges and Deer are excellent. Even a
Moose, a Fisher, an Otter or a Beaver is among the possibilities
for all these frequent or at least visit this
part of the Cambridge River. If seen at all they, with the Ducks, Herons and other birds, are
Cambridge River and B. Meadows