42 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



Joe English. Between these mountains and their contiguous 

 highlands is a deep, well-defined valley or basin, generally trend- 

 ing north and south, and for much of its course more than two 

 miles broad. Standing upon the height of land near the French 

 homestead this great valley extends in either direction as far as 

 the eye can reach, the stretch to the southward forming such a 

 remarkable depression as to at once suggest the idea of an old 

 lake basin, and the contouf of the country is such as to entirely 

 favor that assumption. From the near highlands is an uninter- 

 rupted view of the valley for certainly not less than twelve miles, 

 and the scene from the point of view looking towards the sharp 

 southern escarpment of Joe English is one of surpassing loveli- 

 ness, aside from a consideration of its more striking and sug- 

 gestive features. Another fine view of the extension of this val- 

 ley northward may be had at Dunbarton village, looking west. 



In following the half-mile carriage way to the bottom of a lat- 

 eral valley, at nearly a right-angle with the larger basin, one 

 comes suddenly and without any manner of warning upon the 

 brink of an abrupt and forbidding chasm in the ledge. This is 

 the opening to the famous Devil's Pulpit. It is neither more 

 nor less than a water-worn gorge in solid granite, extending in 

 a west by south course for about a half mile in nearly a straight 

 line. In width the gorge varies but little and will average from 

 one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. At the head of the 

 chasm is a fifty foot wall of rock, the cliffs upon either side main- 

 taining this altitude for from forty to sixty rods, gradually low- 

 ering until the level of the valley plain is reached. The whole 

 of this imposing rock fissure has been eroded by the action of 

 water, as the evidence conclusively shows the former existence 

 here of a long-continued and powerful stream. The main fall 

 plunged over the precipice, causing a whirlpool below sufificient- 

 ly violent to excavate the bed-rock in a great circular cavity, worn 

 apace with the depth eroded, so that instead of there being found 

 the usual bowl-shaped pool or basin the floor was level with the 

 bottom of the cliff. The height of successive stages of water is 



