SCENOGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY. 605 



gers. The ledge is extensive, however, and may stand for scores of 

 years ; but I would advise any persons who are anxious to see the Profile 

 for themselves, to hasten to the spot, for fear of disappointment. I 

 should also question the presumption entertained by many that the Pro- 

 file was probably known to the aborigines, who are supposed to have 

 gazed upon it with superstitious awe. They have given us no legends 

 concerning it ; and its easily decomposing character would suggest that 

 it may not have existed in its present shape for many centuries back. 

 The first notice I can find of it is contained in a description and figure, 

 by Gen. Martin Field, published in 1828 in the American Journal of 

 Science, I vol. xiv, p. 64.* It was discovered not long previously in laying 

 out the road through the Notch. The proper place to see the Profile is 

 on the carriage-road, about a quarter of a mile east of the Profile house, 

 and close by the lake. The figure varies from different points of view. 

 Seen from the road, the expression is somewhat severe and melancholy. 

 Views taken from nearer the object, up the pile of fragments, show him 

 to be much better natured. Oakes remarks that the "face of the 'Old 

 Man of the Mountains' is set, and his countenance fixed and firm. He 

 neither blinks at the near flashes of lightning beneath his nose, nor 

 flinches from the driving snow and sleet of the Franconia winter, which 

 makes the very mercury of the thermometer shrink into the bulb and 

 congeal." 



In passing to the left, the chin sharpens ; then the teeth, as it were, 

 have fallen out, and there is a cap over the forehead. In continuing to 

 the left, the lower part of the face begins to fall away, and is entirely out 

 of sight, while the cap and nose remain essentially entire. The nose 

 and face become flattened in passing to the right, and soon only the 

 forehead remains. The original of the vignette was copied from a pho- 

 tograph. 



This face has been celebrated in Hawthorne's tale of "The Great 

 Stone Face," and in "Christus Judex." 



Upon Mt. Jefferson there is another arrangement of rocks bearing 

 some resemblance to a human countenance, with a cap on the head. It 

 is known as the " Sentinel," and is rarely visited. It is formed by schis- 



* This figure is such a curious exaggeration of the rocks, that I have procured a fac-siiile . The reader will 

 please to compare it with the vignette on the title-page. 



