642 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



cathedral, or the battlements and towers of castles of the medieval age ; 

 or, as one stands on Table rock, he can imagine that a bridge once 

 spanned the chasm below, and that these masses of rock standing in 

 the debris are the ruins of piers on which it might have been built. The 

 rock here differs in cleavage from that of similar composition elsewhere 

 in New Hampshire. It splits in huge longitudinal fragments ; and Na- 

 ture has here quarried posts that equal in just proportion those wrought 

 by human hands. 



On Table rock the view embraces a wide sweep of country. We can 

 see quite a distance into Maine, we can look over a part of Vermont, 

 and it is said that, when clear, places in Quebec province can be recog- 

 nized ; and from Table rock the view down through the Notch is always 

 grand. After passing the height of the Notch, going east on the right, 

 we can see a profile, "The Old Man of Dixville," which has very fair 

 proportions. On the left, still farther east, there is an excellent repre- 

 sentation of the walls and turrets of a ruined castle. 



The "Flume" shows itself on the north side of the road, thirty or forty 

 rods back in the forest. It is a chasm, in granite, about fifteen feet wide 

 and fifteen rods long; and the stream running through it falls about 

 thirty feet in cascades. In one place there is a pot-hole seven feet deep, 

 with a diameter of four feet. The granite is divided by two vertical sets 

 of seams or joints, so that large columnar blocks could be taken out 

 without quarrying. The excavated rock seems to have been a trap dyke, 

 part of which may still be seen. Nearly opposite the Flume, but farther 

 down the valley, is Cascade brook, a branch of Clear stream. Upon this 

 may be seen a series of cascades for more than half a mile. They were 

 named Huntington cascades by the New Hampshire Press Association. 

 The top of the most interesting cascade is 274 feet above its base. Here 

 the stream is divided by a trap dyke two feet wide ; and the water falls 

 on each side a distance of forty feet. The rock here is the same argilla- 

 ceous schist as in the Notch ; besides, there is an interesting trap dyke, 

 containing glassy feldspar and basaltic hornblende, which, Dr. Jackson 

 says, resembles more a volcanic rock than any other found in the state. 

 Most other notches we can see a long distance before we reach them, but 

 here we have scarcely any intimation that there is such a vast rent in 

 the mountain until we are almost in the very gap itself. 



