Rev. Mr Wilcox on an extraordinary Avalanche. 305 



accompany us with an axe. We were frequently obliged to 

 remove trees from the road, to fill excavations, to mend and 

 make bridges, or contrive to get our horses and waggon along 

 separately. After toiling in this manner for half a day, we 

 reached the end of our journey, not, however, without being 

 obliged to leave our waggon half a mile behind. In many 

 places in these six miles, the road and the whole adjacent 

 woods, as it appeared from the marks on the trees, had been 

 overflowed to the depth of ten feet. In one place the river, 

 in consequence of some obstruction at a remarkable fall, had 

 been twenty feet higher than it was when we passed. We 

 stopped to view the fall, which Dr D wight calls " beautiful." 

 He says of it — " The descent is from fifty to sixty feet, cut 

 through a mass of stratified granite; the sides of which ap* 

 pear as if they had been laid by a mason in a variety of fan- 

 tastical forms ; betraying, however, by their rude and wild 

 aspect, the masterly hand of nature." This description is suf- 

 ficiently correct ; but the beauty of the fall was now lost in 

 its sublimity. You have only to imagine the whole body of 

 the Amonoosuck, as it appeared at the bridge which we cros- 

 sed, now compressed to half of its width, and sent dow^nward 

 at an angle of twenty or twenty-five degrees between perpen- 

 dicular walls of stone. On our arrival at Crawford's the ap- 

 pearance of his farm was like that of Rosebrook's, only much 

 worse. Some of his sheep and cattle were lost ; and eight 

 hundred bushels of oats were destroyed. Here we found five 

 gentlemen, who gave us an interesting account of their unsuc- 

 cessful attempt to ascend Mount Washington the preceding 

 day. They went to the " Camp" at the foot of the mountain 

 on Sabbath evening, and lodged there with the intention of 

 climbing the summit the next morning. But in the morning 

 the mountains were enveloped in thick clouds ; the rain began 

 to fall, and increased till afternoon, when it came down in tor- 

 rents. At five o'clock they proposed to spend another night at 

 the camp, and let their guide return home for a fresh supply 

 of provisions for the next day. But the impossibility of keep- 

 ing a fire where every thing was so wet, and the advice of 

 tKeir guide, made them all conclude to return, though with 

 great reluctance. No time was now to be lost, for they had 



NEW SERIES. VOL. I. NO. II. OCT. 1829- U 



