OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 37 



ticut Lakes in Coos County. A number of side streams flow in 

 from the east, the largest being the Ammonusuc, whose source 

 is among the White Mountains. The fourth and smallest dis- 

 trict is the Winnipesaukee basin. Lake Winnipesaukee is the 

 largest sheet of watei in the State, and has nearly as many au- 

 thentic spellings as it has islands. Professor Hitchcock states 

 that the district itself is normally a plain, on which are imposed 

 four small and isolated mountain masses, viz.: the Gunstock 

 and Belknap mountains, Red Hill, 'the Ossipee hills^and Green 

 Mountain in Effingham. Much of the land area is of dry, sandy 

 plains, supporting a considerable growth of pitch pines (espe- 

 cially about West Ossipee) as well as thickets of gray birch and 

 bear oak. These sandy plains stretch northward to the fifth 

 district or White Mountain area. This embraces the highest 

 peaks in the State, and New England as well. Professor Hitch- 

 cock distinguishes ten separate groups of mountains, of which 

 the chief are : the Sandwich range on the south, including the 

 peaks of Chocorua, Passaconaway, Whiteface and Sandwich 

 Dome ; the Twin and Lafayette group on the west, with Moos- 

 ilauke (481 1 ft.) slightly apart to the southwest; the Carter 

 group on the east, including a number of peaks_from North 

 Kearsarge to Mt. Surprise at Gorham, and culminating in Car- 

 ter Dome (4860 ft." . Finally, there is the great central mass 

 of the Presidential range. This includes six peaks of over 5000 

 feet altitude, viz.: Monroe, Clay, Jefferson, Adams, Madison 

 and the majestic Washington itself, towering up, 6291 feet 

 above sea level. Of the large rivers rising among these moun- 

 tains, may be mentioned the Ammonusuc, flowing to the Con- 

 necticut, the Pemigewasset, which becomes tributary to the 

 Merrimack, and the Saco, which flows eastward outside our 

 boundaries, crosses Maine, and empties into the Atlantic. The 

 sixth and last topographical district is that of the extieme 

 northern part of the State, and includes most of Coos County. 

 It is mountainous, though peaks of over 3000 feet are excep- 

 tional. Much of it is yet primeval forest, and it is but sparsely 

 settled. Two depressions enter this area from the south. The 

 first follows the Androscoggin river up to Lake Umbagog 



