The next considerable river is Saco, which rises among the White Mountains of New Hampshire, at the _notch_ near where the Ammonoosuc River takes its rise. The Saco, from its source to the Atlantic Ocean, into which it empties, is about one hundred and forty miles in length, its current rapid, and waters clear. In common with many other rivers, some portion of it is exceedingly crooked. Within the single town of Fryeburg its serpentine windings are said to be thirty-six miles, making in this meandering only four miles on a direct line. Fine intervale lands abound in this vicinity, and also in Brownfield. There are four noted falls on this river. The first is called _Great Falls_, at Hiram, where the water plunges down a ledge of rugged rocks seventy-two feet. At Lemington are the _Steep Falls_, of twenty feet. At Buxton are _Salmon Falls_, of thirty feet; and ten miles below we come to _Saco Falls_, where the river is divided by _Indian Island_, containing thirty acres, and on each side the river tumbles over a precipice of rocks forty-two feet high, and disappears amid the waves of the Atlantic. From the east side of the above-named island, which is fertile and pleasant, the appearance of these falls is majestic. This river is easily affected by freshets. At such times the water rises ten feet, and sometimes it has risen twenty-five feet; when in many places it overflows its banks, and makes great havoc with property. This was particularly the case in the great flood of October, 1775, when a large stream, called _New River_, broke out of the _White Mountains_, and bore down every thing in its way, till it found a channel in Ellis River. The Saco, being swelled enormously by this accession to its waters, swept away mills, bridges, domestic animals, and great quantities of lumber. The burst of New River from the mountains was a great phenomenon; and as its waters were of a reddish brown or blood color, the people considered it an ill omen in those times of revolution.[22] [22] Williamson's History of Maine. In regard to the lumbering interests on this river we know but little, save that in years gone by it has constituted a large share of the business done on the river, and that at the present time it has so much diminished as to be comparatively unimportant.[23] [23] Several letters were written to different gentlemen at Saco, such as were named to me by their friends abroad, for information on this subject; but from some cause, they have remained silent, having taken no notice of my letters, which, I am happy to say, forms but _one_, and the only exception to the prompt and intelligent responses the author has received from gentlemen wherever his inquiries have been directed, whether to the province of New Brunswick, or to gentlemen in Calais, Bangor, Augusta, Brunswick, and Portland, Maine. CHAPTER VI. NEW BRUNSWICK.