152 



Sl)c Saxxmx's illoutl)li) bisitor. 



blast. From the energy with uliicli llie work on 

 the Nortliern road has been carrieJ on, we can 

 scarcely doubt tiuit as soon as the lirst day of 

 January next cars will pass over the whole dis- 

 tance, communicating with tlie Central Vermont 

 road on the westerly side of Connecticut river. 

 If this should be so, it will present, as isbeliev- 

 ed, a case hitherto unpiiialleled in the history of 

 railroads in tliis country: a road over the tnoun- 

 tain ridge prosecuted and completed within the 

 space of about two years. The expense of this 

 railroad, not much exceeding two millions of 

 dollars, for a distance little short of eighty miles, 

 will be only about one half per inile of the sum 

 expended in the road of Massachusetts from 

 Worcester to Albany. That road with its enor- 

 mous expenditure has advanced its stock to the 

 price of about ten i)er cent, above par: what may 

 we calculate will be the worth of the stock in 

 the Northern road at a cost of one half, with a 

 better business certainly when the reach shall be 

 all the v.ay througli Vermont to Ontario and the 

 great West, after the Ogdensburg railroad sliall 

 be completed ! 



In our trip to the summit we found ourselves 

 in much better gratuitous accommodations than 

 our deserts : the pass presented by Mr. Stearns, 

 the superintendent, carried us over the road the 

 full length of the running cars to Cass's, in Graf- 

 ton, where we found, digging out and drilling in 

 his own way the servitors upon the road, the 

 President of the corporation ready to turn his 

 direction for our accommodation, as well as to 

 settle and arrange in the beet manner all difficul- 

 ties with subcontractors and workmen on the 

 way, that could not be conveniently settled and 

 arranged otherwise. Without practical knowl- 

 edge and experience, every enterprise may fail ; 

 with the benefits of practical knowledge, almost 

 every thing may be accomplished. The Presi- 

 dent of the Northern road has shown his tact in 

 buying for the road a whole fium for four hun- 

 dred dollars, covered with a growth of wood 

 wanted for consumption, where the owner would 

 not settle for half the ajnonnt paid simply for the 

 right of way through the farm for a road : he also 

 gave us a useful lesson how we might purchase 

 a beautiful spring of water nece.ssary for the ac- 

 commodation of our own premises in all future 

 time, by incidentally letting us into the knowl- 

 edge of how much competition for any price in 

 money will induce men to trade who had seldom 

 seen money in that region in any of the common 

 transactions of life. The price of forest wood 

 up in this country, nicely cut and carted, had 

 been one dollar the cord, and few buyers at that: 

 men were anxious to contract for the five thou- 

 sand cords wanted for the first year, delivered on 

 the road, for from a dollar twenty-five cents the 

 cord downward. The President of the road 

 fixed the standard price at one dollar fifty cents : 

 we predict that an additional half dollar will fix 

 itself within the next two years upon the value 

 of every standing cord in that legion, in an arti- 

 cle which, with all the present superabundance, 

 in a few years the supply will not be equal to the 

 demand. In this way a value is given to things, 

 which before have long remained without value : 

 this is a spontaneous creation of capital lor the 

 benefit surely of somehndy. 



Our journey of two days to the hunimit was 

 very agreealily carried, with quite agreeable com- 

 jiany, beyond the summit. Besides a steady 

 horse, making slower or more ra|)id progress ac- 

 cording to our wishes, the President of the roail 

 was liy our side to arjswer all inipiiries. With 



us he went from the lower Grafton depot to the 

 summit, describing and giving much better im- 

 pressions than we could he able to give onr 

 readers. The black tnuck cxhiliilioii at the sum- 

 mit i.s somewhat as we have described : we 

 thought it to be a most excellent bed of manure, 

 if it could be used by our farmers ; and if occa 

 sion should recpiire, we fancied it might become, 

 in the cheajiened transport of railroads, a matter 

 to be carried for their benefit many miles either 

 to the east or west. Sure did we make our- 

 selves that the imujense bed of black muck at 

 the summit was possessed of intrinsic value ; for, 

 after it was dried the present season, rank vege- 

 tation, of a growth the seeds of which to us me 

 iriexplicalile, sprung out of it, showing that as a 

 stinndant at once it had equal power with the 

 most stimulating " excrements of cattle," the al- 

 most alone favorite manure of our friend Buck- 

 minster of the Massachusetts Ploughman. 



Passing the summit, a slighter fall for a short 

 distance occurs than forty feet to the mile. In 

 the lapse of time every tiling in nature seems to 

 become artificial rather than natural. The well 

 at the sunnnit is artificial : if not the ledge in 

 which it was formed, the basin and muck are 

 also artificial. So also is a barrier of pure gravel 

 evidently brought there by the flowing water 

 from the west, and protected by the ledge, against 

 and over which the water long flowed. Further 

 west, in the comiiaratively small depression of 

 the water flowing now in that direction, we find 

 other ridges, as if of human invention and con- 

 struction, extending quite a( ross the deepened 

 valley which has become the channel of waters 

 accumubted in no inconsiderable extent of coun- 

 try lip north on the westerly side of the Cardi- 

 gan hills. These ridges are broken through most 

 at the point of the present passage of the stream 

 — in other places there are streams formed when 

 the stream had a higher and different direction. 

 Nearer the lowest level the smaller barrier ridges 

 are many rods in extent. About two miles be- 

 low the summit, as near as we might judge, 

 where the rock became a barrier coinpresstng 

 the waters, and through which in the lapse of 

 time it forced itself, making dry land of an ex- 

 tensive valley above, which was first a lake after 

 the waters receded fioin east towards the west — 

 we have an excavation through a most pecidiar 

 ledge of hard rock, where the channel of the 

 road is several feet below the level of a near 

 pond of water, which furnishes the momentum 

 of power carrying a saw-mill. Below this mill 

 we strike upon a level but little undulating, 

 which carries the railroad some eighloen miles 

 by and down the north side of the Mascomy 

 lake or Enfield pond to Lebanon city. Soon 

 after leaving the summit, there is a beautiful 

 contimied lev(d iu a diVect line of road over the 

 intervales of Orange and Canaan of full two miles 

 in extent. Against the village of Canaan, upon 

 this straight line level, the buildings for the road 

 station, which accounnodates a rich tiu'ining 

 counti'y both north and south, are being erected 

 Between this station and the elephant back of 

 Cardigan at the north-east, is the first side hill 

 and valley which constitutes the town of Orange, 

 much ol'whoso forests have not yet been cleared 

 oi'thc^ir timber. Further west and before reach- 

 ing ( -auiian we have the broader valley running 

 up to Uorchoster and tho hills of Lyme : both of 

 these vallies are rich and heavily timbered, where 

 the lands have not yet been cleared. 



About one mile north liom the depot, at an 

 elevation of perhaps two hinidrcd feet, is tho 



beautiful location of the village of Canaan — a 

 town which, although so situated upon a hill as 

 to be seen fifteen or twenty miles around from 

 all sides of the amphitheatre west of the summit, 

 is evidently of alluvian formation, with a soil 

 strong, tenacious and highly productive, as is 

 the general character of the whole of the Con- 

 necticut river valley. If art had laid out the 

 street, which extends a mile over the village of 

 Canaan, the grading could not have been more 

 perfect than this in its natural position. More 

 than twice the usual width has the road been 

 laid out in a direct line through this village, mak- 

 ing for the village a most beautifiil location. 



Not very far from the railroad depot stands 

 the humble ouc-story bouse erected half a cen- 

 tury ago by the venerable Thomas Baldwin, one 

 of the fatliers of the Baptist church iu .America : 

 this house, while pursuing the trade of a black- 

 smith in the newly settled town, he assisted to 

 erect with his own hands. Eminent as a divine 

 as be was universally beloved for his many vir- 

 tues, the honest friend of toleration, and foe to 

 some of the deluirions which have marred the 

 ifsefulncss of higher educated men of his profes- 

 sion, the memory of this self-taught man deserves 

 to be long cherished by posterity: especially 

 should the State, from which his high talents 

 called him to act in a more elevated position, be 

 proud to number him among her distinguished 

 sons. 



The village of Canaan, although situated upon 

 an elevation above the valley of the railroad and 

 above the land on nearly all sides, has still in its 

 whole extent on the east little below its own lev- 

 el, one of those beautiful lakes which are com- 

 mon, especially in the towns of higher elevation, 

 throughout New-England. This lake seems to 

 have its place of natmal outlet on the south, 

 where the fall is rapidly towards the valley of the 

 railroad : not so, its outlet is on the north, in a 

 directly opposite direction, where the power of 

 its water is used in a cotton fiictory, and variou.s 

 other mills. It is fed by springs arising near its 

 shores, where their location may be ascertained 

 by their lively coldness emerging from the earth. 

 Like other bodies of water originating in these 

 highlands, this lake was originally alive wild 

 trout, as the almost exclusive possessors — thc.-c 

 weighing ten and fifteen poiiiuls were there 

 caught : civilization and sellhnnent introduced 

 the pickerel, common to the ponds on the east 

 side of the ridge ; and the carniverous jaws of 

 the usurpers have siuce entirely expelled the first 

 occupants. Still highcF up than Canaan, around 

 bald Cardigan, are fish ponds, some of which 

 contain trout — in Orange, Dorchester, and per- 

 haps Lyme. To these some ol'llie men sojour:)- 

 ing in Conconl, who emulate the piscatory taste 

 and skill of Izaak Walton, are already inquiring 

 out the way. The novelty of baiting the hook 

 atid finding even chubs or perch to lake the h.ilt 

 iji either of our Concord ponds, presents attrac- 

 tions suflioienl to call together a company of fe- 

 males of u Saturday afternoon, at short warning : 

 more lomantio will he the expedition fifiy or 

 seventy-five miles up the railroad, to follow up 

 an<l take fish out of the foaming streams coming 

 down horn the moimtains, or ambulating w ilh 

 the large and nimble trout, sporting in lakes at 

 high elevations among the giant hills. 



A digression from the 4-aihoad to avoid the 

 public houses in Grafton, crowded with boaril- 

 ers, carried lis to Canaan to enjoy a better re- 

 pose for the night, where we found a grealci' 

 crowd iu the arrival of a portion of the orticcrs 



