32 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



the Eozoic series will enable us to clear up the obscurities of New Hamp- 

 shire geology, and make the study of our strata as interesting as that of 

 the well-established fossiliferous groups in other parts of the country. 



WHITE MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS IN 1871. 



The most valuable of all our reports is that which details the operations 

 for 1871. The conclusions stated had been foreshadowed by the results 

 of the previous years' explorations, but were rendered much more satis- 

 factory by our labors in the area lying between the Saco and Pemige- 

 wasset rivers, and north of Sandwich. 



On the seventeenth of June, with the assistance of eleven gentlemen 

 from the graduating class at Dartmouth college, the exploration of the 

 Pemigewasset country was commenced, and continued uninterruptedly 

 for a month. These gentlemen kindly proffered their services without 

 charge, and deserve the thanks of the community for their exertions in 

 our behalf. Some have imagined the party as enjoying the luxuries of 

 the season in the cushioned seats of the well appointed hotels about the 

 mountains, with every want eagerly anticipated by dutiful attendants. On 

 the contrary, our houses were hastily extemporized sheds ; our beds, a few 

 boughs or ferns placed upon boards ; our food consisted of stale crackers 

 and preserved meats, save a rare taste of trout and berries gathered in 

 climbing mountains, and the luxury of an occasional basket of provisions 

 sent by kind friends at the Profile house ; and we were our own servants. 

 The party consisted of A. A. Abbott, M. O. Adams, A. M. Bacheler, R. 

 M. Carleton, C. H. Conant, G. E. Davis, H. C. Harrison, C. W. Hoitt, 

 Jonathan Smith, W. Upham, A. W. Waters. All these gentlemen con- 

 tributed something towards the accumulation of facts bearing upon the 

 important questions discussed in the first part of the report. Messrs. 

 Conant and Smith were so fortunate as to discover a new lake on the 

 north-west side of Haystack mountain, which we christened Haystack 

 lake. It is parallelogramic in shape, fifteen rods long and half as wide, 

 with rather shallow water, forming the head waters of Gale river, three 

 thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven feet above tide-water, as deter- 

 mined by the aneroid barometer. Messrs. Abbott and Bacheler suc- 

 ceeded in discovering a second lake, still larger, upon the east side of 

 Mt. Kinsman, named, as the other, after the mountain. Others of the 



