The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-05-03
Grand Falls.
A New Pleasure Resort.

~ We EntOF Q Ue IFeSS.
As you must have many readers who, deriv-
ing information and amusement from your
columns overlook their obligation to contribute
their quota to the general fund of information
interesting to sportsmen and tourists, / desire
(being myself an arch offender in this respect)
to cast off my burden of ingrattude and give
absolution by offering some suggestions to my
fellow readers anent a corner of the earth
which seems little known to the ''Waltons' or
"Cottons" of this continent.
To all such L would recommend trip this
coming summer to Grand Falls, New Bruins
wick. I fancy L hear scores of voices asking
Where on earth is that, and how shall we
get there?' So here goes to supply the infor-
nation. From Boston take the Eastern Rail-
road to Portland, thence the Maine Central Rail-
road to Bangor, there connecting with the Il.
" N. A. Railroad for McAdam junction,
there taking the New Brunswick & Canada
Railway to Woodstock, and thence by New
Brunswick Railway to Grand Falls; the whole
distance being about four hundred miles
Baggage can be checked through from Boston.
Should time not be an object this route can be
varied by taking steamer from Boston or Port
miration of the public buildings) let the tourist
HE him away to Fredericton, where he will
most likely have to stay over night. The ho-
tells are however good and reasonable, and
the city the seat of laws and learning,
Being now in proper trim to enjoy the beau
ties of nature, he will take the New Brunswick
Railway for Grand Falls This line has evil
IDENTIFY been constructed with prospective eye
to the welfare of pleasure e-seeke-s, as IL winds
snake-like along the banks of the river, and in
its sinuous course enables the eager traveller
to take in the beautiful woodland scenery to be
found in so many places along the route. Ar
rived at the Falls no vociferous and extortionate
hackmen salute the ears of the weary traveller
with their clamor, nor will he be torn limb
from limb by energetic touts. A civil
young gentleman may iudeed proffer his SER
vice to take checks and escort one to the hotel
bus, and there the trouble ends for in five
minutes we may be smoking a cigar with
mine host Herbert, as genial New Englander
as ever it was my fortune to meet. A retired
sea-captain, he possesses fund of anecdote
and most refreshing flow of spirits and if one
enjoys real hearty, good-humored chaff he may
have his fill at the Captains hands Tor
mouth) to the hearts content. The Grand
Falls Hotel is amply furnished with the
requisites for the comfort of the tourist and
his family. Good rooms-a capital cuisine,
and excellent attendance are all to be found
within-its portals, and to crown all, you will
never make wry face when your bill is pre-
sented.
AS for the Falls, must confess that my
usually facile pen fails me in the attempt to
describe them. Niagara, with its vast un-
broken sheets of water falling from a stupen-
dous height impresses us with sense of awful
subllmity increasing as we gaze upon its Won
ders, but for rare charm and exquisite beauty
the st. John River cataract stands without
rival. The immense mass of water pitch
ing from precipice eighty feet high
hurls itself into the boiling chaldron beneath,
its bulk being broken in the descent by jut-
ting rocks into thousand fantastic shapes and
feathery spray, which in the bright rays of the
sun produce bows of surprising brilliancy.
Below its plunge the river before broad,
and smooth expanse) is confined in q narrow
gorge, in places not more than 80 feet wide,
nemmed in by huge and beetling cliffs 300 feet
high, frowning on the water beneath, which
for three-quarters of mile rushes along in
mad career, surging and boiling with frightful
force and turbulence till it reaches a spacious
basin beneath. In this gorge are to be seen
five large natural wells from thirty to forty
feet deep and fifteen feet in diameter, worn
by the action of the water as smooth and SYM
metrical as if hewn and polished by the most
skilled artificer; also an enormous cavern hol-
lowed out of the surface Of the cliff. Still
forms a whirlpool called the "coffee MILL"
within whose gaping jaws logs of large size
are drawn and gradually crushed to match
wood. A commodious stairwayi is provided to
descend and view these wonders, descending
which we reach the waters edge and gaze upon
the weird and uncouth forms assumed
by the furious watery element, while
above the sky is seen only as mar
row strip OF blue, the luxuriant foli-
age surmounting the wall-like cliffs SEEM
ing almost to meet overhead. The view by
moonlight with the pallid rays feebly strug-
CLING to pierce the sombre gloom which envel-
opes river, rock and tree, is simply indescriba-
BILE, The numbering operations carried on so
exclusively up the river necessitate the logs
being sent over the falls, they being afterwards
secured and RATED in the basin below. Stand
ing by the fall we can see immense trees take
the plunge, often remaining below the surface
twenty or thirty feet above the water, like
some great monolith reared on end, falling back
with a tremendous splash into the water
But am forgetting, in my enthusiasm, all
about the angling to be had in the neighbor-
hood, and such anglingl Ye Gods and little
fishes! No, not little fishes, but great, lusty,
hard-fghting trout abound in the numerous
streams and lakelets within an hours drive of
the village. To describe or locate all these
would fill book, and having been already,
fear, rather prolix, will simply suggest to the
lovers of the angle coming this way the neces-
sity of filling their book with suitable lures for
the unsophisticated piscines, and above all
things not forgetting their landing nets, or woe
betide them when they get among the two
and three Founders.
For off days there are plenty of pleasant
drives, notably, to the Dominion Salmon
Hatchery, about three miles down the river.
The Danish settlement about eight mics away
on the banks of Salmon river; st. Basil Nun
merry. up stream about eleven miles; and other
places of interest reached by good roads
through wild mountain scenery
For information as to facilities for fishing,
cunning, &C., other than that now afforded, L
would advise your readers to address f. w.
Brown, ESQ.,, the collector of customs at Grand
Falls who will, L doubt not, be happy to an
swer any inquiries.
Hoping that my suggestions may prove the
means of bringing many Of my fellow-sports-
men this next Summer into these "fresh fields
and pastures new SALUs FoNTINALIs
Planets in May.