Morning journal and courier., 1885-08-07
AN EXCURSION.
Lake Memphremagog-Ne Town
 Indian Names-A Trip on ssthe Beau tfful Water,s-Sunshfne, Splendid
 Scenery and Rest.

Lake Memphremagog-Ne Town
 Indian Names-A Trip on ssthe Beau
 tfful water''-sunshins, Splendid
 Scenery and Rest.
 NEWPORT, Vt., August 1.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Lake Msmphremagog extends lengthwise
 across the boundary line between Vermont
 and Canada, as if to clinch the two together.
 Praises of the lake had often been sung to
 me, but after had passed by it on the rail-
 way once or twice, began Every mistakenly
 in this instance) to be skeptical, as 8 man
 grows to be whose fate it has been to knock
 about among "sceneries' somewhat. find
 in to-day's newspaper, for example, that
 traveller up the Saguenay believes that ''the
 Saguenay stands unrivalled in the world.
 Now it would not do to accept such a judg
 ment too fully. Nobody doubts that the
 canon of the Saguenay is grand, and at many points beautiful as we'll; and so easy a mat ter is it to get there that every one who pre- tends to travel ought to see it. But to pit it against the world-or even the continent well, that is going too far. As for the lake with the long name had seen in my glimpses of it nothing very remarkable; bu
 
 Vermont, it occurred to me that an indolent trip up the lake was evidently the thing to do.
 Newport is 8 thriving little town whose people live largely out of the numbering in terest and summer boarders, fulfilling an object in life by rearing healthy youngsters to supply the demand of the city for fresh blood. It stands almost at the southern end of the lake, and besides several little ones,
 has big, oad-piazzaed tavern, well kept but very badly placed; for instead of crown ing some one of the very breezy knolls that hem the village in, it is slowed away in a hollow-a great mistake. The Passumpsic railroad connects it with the south by what is called the Connecticut river route," and passes on to Quebec, by the way of the Que bee Central railway, up the eastern shore of the lake; while the Southern railway, along the western side, goes to Montreal. A new line of parlor sleeping cars, called the Mon arch Line, made upon an entirely new model, so far as interior arrangement is concerned now runs on this route to Quebec, giving passengers comfort which hitherto they have been unable to enjoy, and the absence of u mer patronage of this cool and charming region.
 A trim little steamboat, the Lady of the Lake, makes two daily trips up the lake and back, and smaller steamer, the Mountain Maid, (behold how the unities are preservedD
 down ha daily from ana Magog +s the s.n Cana and Nagog are growing steadily and taking into themselves fresh paint and new follies as their years increase. Two or three other (but far Iesser) settlements lie upon the shores of this long bright pond, following as fast in the footsteps of their greater rivals as they are able.
 It was not growing town I wanted to see, however, but rather to get away from ito lie quietly where the air was cool and the grass soft, watching how the far away hills caught the changing tints of the clouds that sailed laZily over their heads, watching how the lights shifted on the water, what was the tracery of the leaves upon the sky, how the snail climbed the ichened rocks and the raspberries reddened in the afternoon sun. So took my ticket for the Noun tain House, an hours ride up the lake, on the western side.
 'sThe meaning of the word Memphrema- ! gog" said a self-considered wise man near me to his two three adniring women | folks, "is beautiful water.'" wanted to ask him, but didn't, how many totally un- like words in the Algonkin language meant that same thing, according to popular report. have heard the same thing alleged of On tario and Erie and Juniata and I know not how many more. The Virginians tell you Shenandoah means daughter of the sta1s," and the people of Michigan that the name of their State is a Shawnee word meaning ''lovely land" Nonsense. As to Memphre- magog the chances are ten thousand to one against it. In the first place it is not so strikingly lovely beyond other mountain a nQIOhhnrS notice; secondly, it owes it's present charm very largely to the modern diversity of land scape due to the long occupation of it's shores by civilization; and, third, no Indian would consciously be affected by the beauty there, were it tenfold more striking, or think to recognize it in name. The poetry in the soul of an Indian is st least 99 per cent. less than sentimental tourists are likely to endow him with. do not know what the word means. MT. J. Hammond Trumbull's books would undoubtedly tell us. The lake is long, narrow and winding. Hills encroach upon it, and rocky bluffs rise sheer from it's sur face, and drop almost plumb beneath it, to a depth, in certain places, of some hundreds of feet. Its waters are clear and cold and fill ed with fish, the bass there having an especi- ally fine reputation for their hard pink, trout like flesh and their gamey habits. Any one of these characteristics is more likely than any idea of loveliness to find record in the name, if indeed, this is not derived from tribe or band once living upon it's banks, | which we know was favorite resort of the red men.
 Turning our prov up the lake it pointed straight for conical hill notched at it's very top where a few trees had been felled, dis closing how much bulk was added to the ap- parent size of the mass by the cloak of wood | land it wore-a thing still more noticeable in California where the redwood forests add a height of three hundred feet to Sonoma's many hills This was Owls Head, the high l est point of pretty little range which forms | the easternmost bulwark of the Green Noun | tains. Newport, behind us, lay scattered | white, yellow and red over the gray green ! hills, banners of white steam marking her l sawmills. On the right were the harvested | heights of Derby, whose every hilltop holds ! a prosperous farmhouse and every basin a l charming village with its half dozen church | spires. On the left rough, wild country ssspiked with frs" rolling away toward the west Ahead, as we gradually swing past a bend in the shore line, long, brilliant stretch of steel blue water was stopped a dozen miles distant by rank upon rank of | turquoise hills, against whose base the lake's edge was marked by silver-white line. 1 There is little on the banks to attract at tention save the ever changing combinations of foliage, here mixed in pleasant variety of l light and dark tones-hard woods and soft. | Here and there log cabin i'll little clear | ing or a better house in it's larger and
 smoother space, or city mans summer
 home close by the water, break the continui-
 ty of woodland which otherwise every
 where creeps down the steep rocks to dip its
 feet in the waves. Only rarely is anything approaching beach to be seen, the lake ly- 1 ing in a trough carved out of granite, which
 for the most part rises abruptly against its margin.
 Two or three small settlements besides
 Magog furnish stopping places for the steam
 CT, but am content to let them remain un
 visited until get back under the shadow o1 Owls Head. Here was little wharf bull like balcony around headland of green l grey granite, behind which tiny cove made