602 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



From the Flume house one can look squarely across to the depression 

 between Mts. Liberty and Flume and perceive the same granitic round- 

 ness, as well as in the Coolidge mountains farther south. The view in 

 the sketch is a very faint approach to the view of the Aiguilles of Mt. 

 Blanc from the vale of Chamouni, for the great extent of the base of 

 the Lafayette mountains conceals the proper proportions of the summits 

 from this point of view. If one climbs the small Mt. Pemigewasset, 

 back of the Flume house, he will see this range in all its grandeur. 

 There is a carriage-road to its summit from the hotel. 



At this point it may be well to call attention to a peculiarity of certain 

 granitic mountains exhibited upon our heliotype of the White horse ledge 

 in Conway. It is traversed by lines streaming down from the summit 

 towards the water of Echo lake. Similar lines appear in photographs of 

 the South Dome of the Yosemite valley in California, and other similar 

 bluffs. At first I thought them due to a peculiar structure of the rock, 

 perhaps vertical joints ; but a nearer inspection shows them to be the 

 result of rain-water flowing down the cliff, and renovating certain parts 

 of the vegetation, and in others changing the shade of color. This cliff 

 also shows a little tendency to cleave off concentrically. The nearness 

 of this cliff to North Conway, and the beautiful reflection of it in the 

 waters of Echo lake, render it a place very attractive, and much fre- 

 quented by visitors. The resemblance of the lighter markings, on the 

 right-hand side of the view, to the head and front part of the body of a 

 horse, is really too indefinite to render the name an appropriate one. 

 The ledge must be about 700 feet high. The one to the north is 960 

 feet above the Saco meadows. 



Profiles. Among the accidental shapes, left by the granite on the 

 cliffs back of Profile lake in Franconia, is the outline of a human face 

 known as the Old Man of the Mountains (Fig. 45), and one of the most 

 attractive features in the landscape in this part of the country. Most of 

 the facial features are present, the forehead, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and 

 chin, and well proportioned to one another. (Fig. 74 is roughly copied 

 from the lithograph of Oakes, after a drawing by Sprague.) It has been 

 placed by nature in a very convenient place for exhibition, standing in 

 relief against the sky, and in picturesque harmony with its surroundings. 

 It can be seen to advantage only in one line, from the lake up Eagle cliff 



