SCENOGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY. 619 



The Railway. The lower station of the Mt. Washington Railway is 

 known as "Ammonoosuc," and consists of the necessary buildings for 

 the accommodation of the road. The station-house is on the west 

 branch of the swift Ammonoosuc stream, which has descended over 

 2000 feet since leaving the Lakes of the Clouds, about three miles dis- 

 tant. The stream is crossed by trestle-work about fifteen feet high ; and 

 the track commences with the grade of 1700 feet to the mile. Place the 

 end of a ladder thirty feet long upon a fence ten feet high, and an 

 adequate idea of this inclination will be exhibited to us. It does not 

 continue, however, beyond 300 feet. At three fourths of a mile is the 

 first water-station, near the " Cold spring." The grade becomes steeper 

 again at the "Waumbek junction," one mile and eight rods distance from 

 and 1242 feet higher than the starting-point. The road is straight thus 

 far, and forest trees of ordinary dimensions have been cut for its passage. 

 But now the trees are smaller; the track curves; and soon there is a 

 small cut through a ledge. With the top of the trees the trestle-work 

 known as "Jacob's ladder," 2800 feet above Ammonoosuc, is reached. A 

 view of this portion of the road, with the mountain engine upon it, has 

 been given opposite page 82. 



This trestle-work is at one point thirty feet high ; and the track has an 

 elevation of more than one in three for 300 feet. The traveller has been 

 noticing the changes in the shapes of the western mountains in the as- 

 cent, and has observed the curious outline of the Lafayette range rising 

 up behind the Twin mountains. On the north he may see the beautiful 

 south-westerly slope of Jefferson, and on the south the several peaks along 

 the Crawford road. Westerly, the views of the valleys are charming. 

 His attention will now be divided largely by the curious angular stones 

 and the sub-alpine vegetation suddenly brought under his notice. Should 

 the weather be unpropitious, this is the place where the powerful winds 

 of the upper current will begin to be felt, and clouds may shut out every 

 bright prospect. Not far above Jacob's ladder the ridge between Clay 

 and Washington will be reached ; and the traveller can look down a thou- 

 sand feet into the black gulf at the head of the west branch of the 

 Peabody river. The rest of the ascent is comparatively gradual, and 

 the distant views are beginning to absorb the attention. Something of 

 the arctic desolation of the mountain itself is expressed in Fig. 10. 



