34 Some Account of an Excursion to 



eye is abruptly met by perpendicular clefts, whose pro- 

 jecting rocks seem hanging over him, in the attitude of 

 menace. After his first statue-like stare of amazement 

 is over, in turning around to the right, he beholds, flow- 

 ing in a narrow ditch by his side, the head- waters of 

 the Saco, which have descended from cliffs more ele- 

 vated, but not quite so steep, as those upon his left. 

 Here the road is incapable of being made sufficiently 

 wide for two carriages to go abreast. The road follows 

 the Saco, in a meandering direction, down the east side 

 of the mountain, the valley widening as it proceeds. 



I was informed, that, in the freshets, the waters which 

 begin their descent in the same channel divide into two 

 courses, the one running into the Saco, and the other 

 into the Ammonoosuck. 



No mines have vet been discovered in the bowels of 

 the mountain, though the traversing of the needle be- 

 speaks the presence of iron-ore, in some portions of it. 



The colour of some of the stones proves the exist- 

 ence of very small portions of iron in their composi- 

 tions; as do the stones, more or less, upon all the high 

 lands between Connecticut-River and the Ocean, over 

 which I have travelled. 



In the northern part of the county of Worcester, 

 upon a portion of these high lands, several Mineral 

 Springs have lately been discovered, whose medicinal 

 waters are now fast rising into public notice. Iron and 



