Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/319

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THE VALLEY OF THE ST. JOHN
265

Nepisiguit Rivers, with short and infrequent carries.

The railroad swerves close to the frontier at Aroostook Junction, and sends off a branch into Maine. The Aroostook Valley as far as Presque Isle, 34 miles from the Junction, belonged to New Brunswick for fifty years following the international boundary settlement of 1783. Consequent upon a show of arms in a border dispute that waxed hot enough to threaten the peace of two countries, the territory was conceded to Maine in 1839 by a complacent British commissioner.

The railway climbs higher among the hills during the journey of 18 miles from Aroostook Junction to Grand Falls. Here the river makes a wide detour and holds the village within the curve. As the train nears the bridge which carries the rails to the opposite bank of a frothing gorge the Falls come startlingly into view up-stream. Over the lip of a daring precipice the narrowed flood vaults in a perpendicular cascade that caroms from ledge to ledge and sends off clouds of mist. The town is on the level plain above. A little way from it we come to the edge of the river and follow its course to the brink where without warning it tumbles over with a protesting roar. The measure of its descent is 80 feet. Spume and prism-ray light the sullen chasm and play against the bold wet flanks. In the logging season the