Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1848-10-11
CHAPTER IL,
Methought within desert cave,
Cold, dark an nan as the grave,
SHuf3enly awoke
CHAPTER II,

'0'a aafA az sn1n mn as s'Eels the grave
II seemed of sable night the cell,
Where, save when from the ceiling fell
An oozing drop, her silent spell
No sound had ever broke.
ALLIsToN.
Among tho great rivers of Maine the
Penobscot and kenebeck stand pre.emi-
nent, on account of their Maratima impor-
lance, their depth and adaptibility TO the
purposes of internal navigation, but there
are others less essential 10 tho wealth of
the country, which, encountered with falls
and rapids, spurn alike ship and steamer,
but are invaluable for the great purposes
of manufacture. The Androscogin is one
of these, river, winding, caprcious and
most beautiful; just the one to touch the
fancy of thespoet, and tempt the cupidity
Of mill wright. 1t abounds with scenery
Of the most lovely and romantic interest,
and falls already in. bondage to loom and
shuttle. Lewistown Falls, or Pre;jip-scot,
as tho aboriginals called this beautiful
place, nre perhaps, among the finest water
plunges in the country. 1t is not merely
the beauty OF the river itself u broad and
heightened sheet Of liquid in the heart Of a
fine country. but the whole region is wild
and romantic. The sudden bends Of the
river present headlands Of rare boldness,
beneath the river spreads itself in placid
bay; till ready to gather up its skirts again,
and thread itself daintily among the hills.
The banks present slopes and savannas
warm and sheltered, in which nestle away
finely cultivated farms, and from whence
arise those rural sounds Of flock and herd
so grateful to the spirit, and that primitive
blast of horn, winding itself into thous.
and echoes, the signal Of the-ingatherng
of q household. Cliffs crowned with fir,
overhang the waters; hills. rising hundreds
Of feet, cast their dense shadows quite
across the stream; and even now tho ''slim
canoe" Of the Indian may be seen poised
below, while some stern relic of the woods
looks upward to the ancient hunting sites
of his people, and recalls the day when at
the verge of this very fall, populous vii.
lage sent up its council smoke day and
night, telling of peace and the contested
power of mis- tribe.
But in the time of our story, the region
stood in its untamed majesty; the whirling
mass of waters tutnbling and plunging in
the midst OF an unbroken forest, and the
great roar of the cataract booming through
the solitude like the unceasing voice OF the
eternal deep. Men now stand with awe
and gaze upon those mysterious falls, vital
with tradition, terribly beautiful, and again
and again ask, "Can they be true? Can
it be that beneath those waters, behind that
sheet Of foam is room, spacious and vast,
and well known, and frequented by the
Indian"
Our stoay must establish the fact in re
gard to this cave-a fact we'll known in
the earlier records Of the country, more
than one white man having found himself
sufficiently athletic to plunge behind the
sheet of water and gain the room.
1t was mid day, and the sun, penetrating
the sheet of the falls, cast not uncheerful
light into the cave the size and gloom OF
which were still further relieved by fire
burning in the centre, and one or more
torches stuck in the fsures Of the rocks.
Before this fire stood a woman of forty or
fifty years of age, gazing intently upon
the white liquid; and tumultuous covering
to the door OF her home, and yet The ex'
preston of her eye showed that her
thoughts were far beyond the place in
which she stood.
She was taller than the won't Of Indian
women, more slender than is customary
with them at her period Of life, and alto