^{}t iTarmcr's illoxxtl)lt) bisitor. 



151 



Second tiirii|iike separates from that to Grafton 

 and Cuiiaaii. 



The N^ortheni road here takes the course to- 

 wards the siiinrnit nt' the Grafton road. On its 

 way it eiicoiititers very nearly a rurions gor^e 

 in the iiatnral rook, thrungh which tlio turnpike 

 was originally made. The higher point of the 

 ridge which separate.? the waters of the two riv- 

 er.s is reached hy un inclination of less than fifty 

 feet to the mile, in a rise of lliile more thin a 

 hundred feet — this svonid make hetween three 

 and four hundred leet rise, with little if any fall, 

 from the point of leaving the Merrimack at 

 Franklin to the rise at the foot of the summit. 

 'I'he turn in the road to a more northerly direc- 

 tion is around the west end of the Ragjjed moun- 

 tains, which, in their whide length to the Mer- 

 rimack, divide the towns of Andover on the one 

 hand from Hill, and a part of D.mhury on the 

 other. The Giafion turnpike was originally laid 

 over some of the least elevated portions of this 

 route, the tracks of the turnpike and railroad he- 

 ing so near at the head of the Ragj^ed mountain 

 elevation and the siiiumit of both, found at the 

 lowest point at the foot of the Cardigan hills, 

 that the common road fur considerable distances 

 has been removed to a new track, to give place 

 to the railroad. After pursuing nearly a level for 

 about ten miles, the first rise is gained at the 

 point of Ragged mountain by considerable cut- 

 ting through the solid rock: here is a channel 

 through the rook as natural as if it had been cut 

 out with human hands, which undoubledly was 

 formed by a former flow of the waters over the 

 ridge. This cradled cutting is through a species 

 of rock which disintegrates, and becomes soil 

 from the action of the atmosphere and of frost. 

 Just wide enough only for the passage of the 

 turnpike road in a straight line, the railroad 

 avoids this chasm by cutting another through 

 harder rock a liltle further east, which leads the 

 track to a lower level as it proceeds north. From 

 the height of this snninnt there is little or no fall 

 before touching Smith's river, the main source 

 of whiidi is fomid in the rocky summit to which 

 the railroad threads it way, preserving beyond 

 very nearly a further level for about ten miles 

 through the towns of Danbury and Grafton. 

 The temporary station of the cars is at the resi- 

 dence of Jesse Cass, Esq., about one mile south- 

 west of the turnpike village, and nearly half way 

 between that and the ancient meeting-house of 

 Grafton at the town centre. The meeting-house 

 is at the centre of an amphitheatre, nearly sur- 

 rounded by hills on all sides : at the bottom of 

 this amphitheatre, near the stream in much of 

 the distance, the Nmthern railroad has its course 

 The layers of rounded rocks, smoothed by the 

 long action of the waters, the luiked rocks upon 

 tli(! hill-s, the ledges exposed by the successive 

 eultings, the fissures of trap-rock, the alternation 

 through a single ledge from felspar to granite, 

 and from gneis to mica, present this region as a 

 tein|)ling spot to the geologist. Dr. Jackson, vis 

 iting Grafton about four years ago, has brought 

 out in an elderly gentleman of the name of 

 Carswell a passion for curious specimens of 

 rocks, leading him to devote his whole attention 

 in the search for specimens. From his humble 

 residence on the road his hoard exhibits a nnise- 

 UTii that more scientific and learned amateurs 

 might not be ashamed to own. Of the u.seful 

 minerals to he found in this region is the exten- 

 sive bed of isinglass, mentioned by Belknap in 

 his history of the fitate. The naked ledge of the 

 mountain from which it is taken may be seen at 



a distance while passing along the valley. The 

 isinglass, which is found also in other places, i" 

 readily cut into shape, and has the nnifurmity 

 and clearness of connnon window glass : it is 

 manufactured into fancy boxes. Many tons have 

 been taken from the larger ledge : it does 

 not occur to us, how great is the use of this 

 article for economical and scientific purposes 



On the way from the centre to the noitli line 

 of Grafton, thi; stream passes through a pond of 

 considerable extent, down to which on either 

 hanil the uiounlain ledges extend. Tlie old turn- 

 pike, cutting off the distance, has its course over 

 unavoidable sleep hills further east : a new road' 

 more level but further round, had within a few 

 years been constructed hy the pond. The rail- 

 road has also made provision for itself in this 

 gorge, a portion id' the way of "ecessity the same 

 as that of the travelled road, but umch more di- 

 rect, filling in over the side of the pond itself, 

 where a more direct line required it. Through 

 the gorges and fastnesses of this mountain re 

 gion, to the stranger passing rapidly, the scenery 

 is wihl in the extreme, especially at tli'i points 

 where the dark forest trees overshade the rocks 

 and the stream, one or both on either hand. 



The approach to the sunnnif, in a rise of some 

 tivo hundred feet, is made for the road no wliere 

 exceeding forty-two feet to the mile. The exca- 

 vation of the rock at this summit is fifteen hun- 

 dred feet long, with the maximum of thirty-two 

 feet as the greatest depth. The great work of 

 excavation in its whole length has been perform- 

 ed through this rock within the last eighteen 

 months : it will be completed at an expense not 

 much to exceed eighty thousand dollars. The 

 artificial well, which was present when we visit- 

 ed the work one year ago, has been broken up, 

 and the exterior wall carried away : a rounded 

 stone at tiie bottom of a harder material than 

 that which it wore out, which in the flowing ami 

 whirl of waters over this ridge performed the 

 work in times even anterior to the great flood of 

 scripture record, had been carried away by the 

 professors of Dartmouth College, probably to aid 

 investigations which shall give more exactness 

 to the unwritten history, reacliing hack to times 

 when the "earth was without form and void, 

 and darkness covered the face of the deep." 

 Several other artificial weaiings in the process 

 of excavation have been opened under an over- 

 hanging and rocky cover. 



The barrier broken over in this part of the 

 mountain range is indeed a curiosity, whether 

 we take and consider it as it is, or what it has 

 been. The primary rocky formation — upheaved 

 when the mountains were formed, lined with 

 hardened fissures of trap-rock, extending across 

 the entire ridge of differing kinds of rock, alter- 

 nating from pure and mixed granite, splitting in 

 regular blocks, to whiter felspar breaking into 

 crags, is there — overlaying it not in horizontal 

 hut in less upheaved strata, are diluvial deposites 

 alternating from conglomerate hard pebbles, long 

 worn by water to strata, now of clayey .sand to 

 pure sand ; and the interstices through the whole 

 filled in with extensive beds of rich black peat 

 muck which, for ages on ages, has been form- 

 ing, either from trees growing on the spot, or 

 from materials washed down from one side or 

 the other of the higher mountain ridge. 



The waters divide at either end of the fifteen 

 hundred feet snuiniit, passing off at the north- 

 west towards Connecticut river, and south-east 

 to the Merrimack. The mountain rises on either 

 hand to the extent of several hundred feet — on 



the north-east side more immediately. The val- 

 ley first north of the ridge is the head of a con- 

 siderable stream, which soon iiecomes a morass 

 and sunken pond, nearly at the level of the rail- 

 road as excavated. Into this morass much of the 

 excavated rocks has been thrown — these have 

 settled down from time to time in a mud bottorti, 

 whose hard base could be reached, the superin- 

 cumbent weight of the rock raising the ground 

 on the cast margin of the road. This is the 

 source of the stream running west. A less ex- 

 tended valley on the other declivity overlooking 

 the summit, has found a place for its waters in a 

 basin of the rocky ledge of the summit itself. 

 Within a very few rods of the well the basin 

 commences: the turnpike road a long time pass- 

 ed a few feet easterly of the well, directly over 

 the muddy morass, which widened on the east 

 toivards the nioiinlain hasi', and in the bottom 

 of which flags and water bushes and vegetables 

 grew. Excavating the rock through the ledge 

 from both extremes, the basin morass was reach- 

 ed near the centre. A stream of water, one of 

 the sources of Smith's river, had run off over a 

 low point of the rock a liitle to the west of the 

 turnpike track: soon was it found that the water 

 here rested in a bed of consolidated black veget- 

 able muck or peat. Means were found to lower 

 the drain of water as soon as the southerly part 

 of the ledge had been perforated up to the allu- 

 vial deposites resting in the basin. Drawing off 

 the water as well as might be, the carrying away 

 of the black deposite was commenced. Several 

 I'eet near the surface it was intermixed witii the 

 remnants of logs, and limbs, and roots of trees ; 

 but the more extensive the efforts to take away 

 the channel for the road, the more powerful was 

 the rush of matter from either side filling it in. 

 This course was pursued day after day : the pro- 

 gress made by a gang of persevering Irishmen 

 through the day, was repeateilly arrested liy an 

 equal filling in at night. The water drained ufT 

 as the channel below was lowered ; hut the im- 

 pending sides of sutl black muck continued to 

 rusli down and fill in. lii excavating the swamp 

 at a few feet below the smface near the centre, 

 another ledge in the rock, extending across as a 

 barrier, was reached. On the north side of this 

 ledge the excavation has succeeded thus far with- 

 out the pressure entirely filling it lip. Although 

 there is no visible point of draining through this 

 ledge, the water goes offas fast as it comes down, 

 and is seen running out at the channel which 

 takes the water from the other side several rods 

 below. No remedy for the interminable difliculty 

 of a constant settling down of tlie immense 

 mass of black peat muck filling up the basin 

 could be found, but in the driving of spiles of 

 whole length trees as a barrier on either side of 

 the excavated track : no bottom to the basin has 

 yet been reache<l by the spiles. 'J'he driving of 

 ipiles and the digging out and carrying ofl^ of the 

 black peat muck, are going on at the same time 

 with as much rapidity as Yankee ingenuity 

 knows how to devise. As the heavy work in a 

 limited space must be done, the new obstruction 

 from the impending morass not having been an- 

 ticipated, it is wonderful that the progress to- 

 wards completion has outstripped the original 

 calculation. The ledge has been much more 

 easily perforated from the regularity of the larger 

 portion of its granitic structure : the drilling and 

 blasting have been upon a most magnifici-nt 

 scale — the larger drill and greater blast being 

 adopted. One hundred and thirty square yards 

 have beeu thrown out on this ledge at a single 



