Oxford Democrat

Rumford Falls.
One of the spots full of interests, though but rarely visited, is Rumford Falls in Oxford county. A ride from Bethel Hill Station down the Androscoggin through East Bethel and Rumford is one of the finest in the country. Fine scenery greets the eye at every step. These falls are not quite as large as Niagara's, but when the water is high, it rushes down with great force through a narrow gorge. The whole river is at once changed into a mass of foam as it rushes down the precipice and the rapids, and maintains this character for half a mile. It is instant death to the man who falls into their rapids. During the past spring three men were drowned while engaged in the perilous employment of log driving. As the logs pitch over the falls they sometimes perform strange antics. You may see one strike on end as it reaches the bottom of the cataract and leap several times its length through the air. A troop of them will get in the eddy below and chase each other round and round, till accident turns them down stream. Millions of logs pass over these falls every year. At the pitch the river is very narrow. A bridge of a single span could easily be thrown across it. On its banks is a bed of limestone filled with horn-blende, cinnamon garnets and other minerals. A single blast would furnish as many specimens as a man could carry.
We spent the night just below the falls. The noise is incessant. Strangers are generally kept awake. The water power here is immense, and much of it could be economized at a trifling expense. A short distance below, Swift river empties into the main river, near whose mouth is the little village of Mexico. What a place for a manufacturing city this would be! Could a railroad reach this point, there could be no reason why this great natural resource should not be utilized. It is the largest cataract in New England. T.