Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-09-28

chanIcs' shops, there is mandatory OF en-
cry, not on very large scale, but il is said that
the proprietor finds it on his own land and
prepares it for the market. This useful min
eral is not found in many places in the United
States, and until recently all that was used in
this country was imported from abroad. I'm
fortunately we missed of visiting this manu-
factory, and consequently did not learn the
particulars concerning il.
#tsU HIvs@.
suppose that few OF your readers know
there is such a stream as Bear river, or that
there is anything curious in the region where
it is located Bear river is one of the effluents
of the Androscoggin and empties into it AT
Newry corner, about half way between Rum
ford and Bethel. Between Rumford and
Newry is the little town of Hanover, consist
ing of one row of farms lying along between
the river and the mountains, and claiming to
have paid its war expenses by annually taxing
itself just what its quotas cost, as fast as they
were called fora model of patriotism and
economy.
Bear river comes in from the northwest
1t is not a large stream, but, small as it is, is
liable to freshets and floods which carry its
bridges away. Coming down from amongst
the mountains, it overhows its banks in the
spring, and swells rapidly during heavy rains.
The road along its north bank is smooth, hard
and not very hilly. The scenery is romantic
and picturesque. On one side tier of cult
waited farms may be seen, with many good
and handsome buildings. On the other it is
much wilder, and there is only occasionally a
field showing the marks of cultivation. The
charm which one finds in riding up this river
is in the ever changing mountain views. As
the road winds along, following the bank of
the stream, it seems at times that huge
mountain stands right in your path. Escaping
this by some unforeseen curve, another equal
ly impossible barrier presents itself just
ahead. And so it runs on in continual sue.
cession. Before reaching the head of Bear
river, the road crosses and recrosses it by at
least twenty bridges.
Soon after entering the narrow valley of Bear
river Puzzle mountain lifts its bare and rocky
head at your right, and continues to be the
most prominent object for many miles. 1t is
probably 1000 or 5000 feet high, and al
though by an optical illusion appearing so
near, it is really two or three miles distant
from the stream.
At North Newry, about five miles up the
stream, and almost in the wilderness, is a
public house. 1t has another name but in
common parance is called
POPLAR TAVERN.
We confess that we have weakness for
Poplar Tavern. 1t has its defects, but in
spite of all there is magic charm attached to
it. What though it is somewhat bare Of lux
ures aud conveniences, coarse in its orna-
ments, and even slack in the attention that
travellers require? yet the picture we have OF
it in our memory, passing over all these I'M
pleasantnesses, presents it as beautiful and
attractive in all its surroundings. Before it
is the clear running stream, murmuring along
its rocky bed. with its margin Of shrubs and
bushes behind it rises a rocky, wood-crown-
ed hill, with the grand old forest in the back
ground; on the right the narrow ribbon-like
road, winding its way along farther into the
forest and mountains and on the left Puzzle
mountain lifts itself up into the sky, and
seems to look down from its ethereal height
upon the pigmy man and his puny works be-
low. A moonlight view of Puzzle mountain
from the door yard of the inn, on a clear night,
is a sight worth going miles to see.
SCREW AUGER FALLS.
Until within few years these falls were
partly covered by sawmill, but this has been
destroyed by fire, leaving in full view one of
the most curious of the freaks of nature. I'M
agine stream of water making its way through
a bed of solid granite, by a channel cut or
worn some fifty feet deep and perhaps ten
feet wide,-and this channel, not in direct
line, but crooked as cork-screw, its walls
sometimes perpendicular, sometimes jutting
over and assuming every curious shape. In
this rocky channel Bear river flows for three
or four rods, and hence the name of Screw
Anger falls.
| THE JAIL.
Another curiosity further up the river, is
called the Jail. 1t is cell some ten feet
square, with walls as regular and perpendicu-
lar as though laid by mason, and six or
eight feet deep. 1t has on one side an en-
trance somewhat resembling a huge door way,
and on the other a subterranean opening into
an interior underground dungeon.
MOOSE CAVE.
This is chasm rather than cave, some
twenty rods from the road, and Immediately
at the base of a stupendous cliff, which is
probably 1900 feet in height. The chasm is
perhaps 70 feet deep, and extends in irregu-
lar riffs a considerable distance along the
foot of the cliff. BY what conyulsion of ma
ture the solid rock was riven into such
chasms, is only theme for conjecture. Out
of this cave issues a pure ice-cold stream of
water, sweet and grateful to the taste of the