Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay

There are said to be only four places in the world where two major rivers--with entirely separate watersheds--converge at their mouths to form a common delta.

Three are famous, having loomed large in the histories and economies of their regions: the Sacramento, San Joaquin delta in California; Tigris, Euphrates delta in Iraq; and the Ganges, Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. The fourth is Merrymeeting Bay in Maine. It is unfamiliar to most people, even within its immediate vicinity.

Frank Burroughs has lived and knocked around on Merrymeeting Bay for three decades, gaining a familiarity with its natural and human history--with its birds, fish, and mammals, and with the local people who know it best. His wonderfully fluid essays explore the ecology, environment, and activities in this unusual bay, as Heather Perry’s beautiful photographs show us the details.

FRANKLIN BURROUGHS is the Harrison King McCann Research Professor of the English Language Emeritusat Bowdoin College, where he taught English literature from1968 to 2002.

His essays have appeared in a vaiety of literary publications and anthologies, including Best American Essays, The Pushcart Anthology, and The Norton Anthology of Nature Writing. A recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship, he is the author of the books The River Home, Billy Watson’s Croker Sack, and Confluence. He lives in Topsham, Maine.

Heather Perry is a photographer, writer, painter, swimmer, and travel guide whose work revolves around water. A marine naturalist, she is particularly interested in marine and freshwater natural history work. Her photographs have appeared in Ocean Navigator, Maine Times, Trout, Antlantic Salmon Journal, Dive International, and Le Monde. She lives in Bath, Maine.