Rev. Mr Wilcox on an extraordinary Avalanche. 307 



which began near the line where the soil and vegetation ter- 

 minate, and growing wider as they descended, were estimated 

 to contain more than a hundred acres. These were all on the 

 western side of the mountains. They were composed of the 

 whole surface of the earth, with all its growth of woods, and 

 its loose rocks, to the depth of fifteen, twenty, and thirty feet. 

 And wherever the slides of the two projecting mountains met, 

 forming a vast ravine, the depth was still greater. 



Such was the report which the party from the mountains 

 gave. The intelligence which Mr Crawford, and the gentle- 

 man accompanying him, brought from the Notch, was of a 

 more melancholy nature. The road, though a turnpike, was 

 in such a state, that they were obliged to walk to the Notch 

 House, lately kept by Mr Willey, a distance of six miles. All 

 the bridges over the Amonoosuck, five in number, those over 

 the Saco, and those over the tributary streams of both, were 

 gone. In some places the road was excavated to the depth of 

 fifteen and twenty feet ; and in others it was covered with 

 earth, and rocks, and trees, to as great a height. In the 

 Notch, and along the deep defile below it, for a mile and a- 

 half, to the Notch House, and as far as could be seen beyond 

 it, no appearance of the road, except in one place for two or 

 three rods, could be discovered. The steep sides of the moun- 

 tain, first on one hand, then on the other, and then on both, 

 had slid down into this narrow passage, and formed a conti- 

 nued mass from one end to the other, so that a turnpike will 

 probably not be made through it again very soon, if ever. 

 The Notch House was found uninjured ; though the barn ad- 

 joining it by a shed, was crushed ; and under its ruins were two 

 dead horses. The house was entirely deserted ; the beds were 

 tumbled ; their covering was turned down ; and near them 

 upon chairs and on the floor lay the wearing apparel of the 

 several members of the family ; while the money and the papers 

 of Mr Willey were lying in his open bar. From these cir- 

 cumstances it seemed almost certain, that the whole family 

 were destroyed ; and it soon became quite so, by the arrival 

 of a brother of Mr Crawford from his father's, six miles farther 

 east. From him we learnt that the valley of the Saco for 

 many miles presented an uninterrupted scene of desolation. 



