The Portland daily press., 1895-06-22
Lake Webb In Natures Amphi-
theatre.
A DAYS FISHING THERE WITH EX.
GOV. MARBLE.

Mr heed-The Pine Point camps.
Special Correspondence.)
| To the Editor Of the Press:
1 left Portland in the morning train less
than a week ago en- route for Weld Pond,
| or Lake Webb, as it is better termed, up
in Franklin county. I intended to go by
way of Dixfield, since the Portland &
Rumford Falls Railroad, now passes
that pretty little town on its way to
Rumford Falls
The station is across the river from
Dixfield, in West Peru. The handsome
iron bridge is now partially completed
and will be finished by August. 1t is
very much needed The current is swift
at this point and the banks Steep The
two-horse stage takes you across from the
station. You hold on tight while you
pass down the steep banks and still
tighter as you bump and crash and strain
and splash over a temporary causeway of
gravel and boulders that extends through
the shadows to where the water is deep
enough for the ferry boat
The logs were running and we waited
for an opening, and then hustled to dodge
them, if laboring frantically with long
poles can be called hustling, and great
fiat ferry boat can be said to dodge.
Down came the big logs like the batter
ing rams of the ancients. There are rips
just above, and we were in rapid cur
rent. 1t was no use to try to repel the
attack. We must simply stand the shock
and keep on, if we could We kept on all
right this time, though several big logs
gave us vicious blows and tried to get
underneath and stop u.s. But day or
two before the logs got the better of the
ferryboat, and effectually stopped it, It
was hung up or jammed up in the mid
die of the river for some time, but finally
was able to beat a retreat to the shore
from whence it started. The iron bridge
will furnish surer transit, but it will
be very tame and commonplace, if one
has had fight with the logs
A delightful drive of twelve miles
through these beautiful highlands of
Maine brought us to grand amphi-
theatre in the mountains with its glitter
ing arena, wherein those splendid ath-
letes, the trout and salmon and pickerel
are not always but most always, ready
to do royal battle with the sportsman and
his rod. We entered the amphitheatre
| through forest over comparatively
| level road. A bear and two deer had been
seen on this road within month.
We turned down through little clear
ing in the woods, where beans and corn
were planted and soon drove along the
wooded shore of the lake and then right
up hill on to the top of a mighty KNOLL
and 10 and behold we were in the midst
of the amphitheatre before we had known
it, and its glittering, fascinating arena
was there below us, 40 feet below us, and
extended away for five miles to the steep
slopes of old Tumble Down Mountain,
that lifts it's knobby, rocky crests at the
head of Lake Webb
On the right, just behind the little viii
lage of Weld, was the big and beautiful
dome of Mt. Blue Across the lake there
was a great mountainous ridge, and be-
hind us, looming up over the forests,
| were the two giant peaks Of Saddleback.
Mountains were all around us, and how
any of them was a mystery. 1t was
through that thick forest somehow, but it
must have been an underground pa ssage.
1t seemed like it at all events.
But no matter how we got there. 1t
was sufficient to be there The top of the
oil ie, rod Dxx-th Of Nov,
way pines There are no low branches
| to obstruct the view, and better still there
| is no pitch on their smooth columnar
| trunks. The knoll is some 40 feet wide
on top and 200 feet long, or something
like that. Its sides are all very steep ex-
cept that one up which we drove. The
| waves dash against the 70 ky foundations
on two sides. 1t extends so far into the
| lake that during the big freshet this
spring the water flowed around it and
made it an island.
On top of this knoll are the Pine Point
camps, Familiarity known as "Chase' S
camps" because Mr.. Wilder K. Chase of,
Dixfield is the proprietor. There is one
large building, containing the office, the
spacious dining room and the kitchen.
Back of this, along the crest of the knoll,
extends a row of fine cottages each con-
tanning two bedrooms and sitting room,
in which is stove. During the early
fishing in the spring and the late hunting
in the fall these open stoves, for burning
wood, are as necessary as they are at
tractive. The beauty of this cottage sys-
TEN is that a private party can have a
house all to themselves. In the noun
tains of Jamaica, the writer once stopped
at an exactly similar establishment.
A party Of IL or Is people were at the
camps to take dinner and spend the day.
Among those who were making longer
stay were x-Gov. Marble and his brother,
Horace Marble, of Wilton, for many years
United States deputy marshal, and the
formers daughter and her husband, Mr.
and Mrs. Haskell of Waldoboro
1t was my good fortune to accompany
the Governor on fishing trip the next
day; not that we had any good fortune
as combatants with the trout in the
haantifr11 aro,oo oq In WoI,h for 49,