116 



&l)c iavmcv's ittontI)lij faisitor. 



Give also warming teas, such as sage, pepper- 

 mint, &c. Feed on laxative food, and give as- 

 tringents, as for jaundice, to restore the diges- 

 tive organs to their usual tone and action. We 

 think that ashes and cider would he excellent. 

 Saltpetre, in doses of an ounce, is good. Change 

 the food, and remove all cause of disease. Small 

 doses of sulphur are good. 



Black-leg in Calves. — At a recent discus- 

 sion of this suhject by a Farmers' Club in Eng- 

 land, it appeared to be the general opinion that 

 hay which was badly heated in the mow or stack, 

 rendered calves which fed on it particularly lia- 

 ble to black-leg. It was agreed that they should 

 not be stunted in their growth— should have 

 clean, sweet fodder (or grass) with a little meal 

 of some kind of grain, or oil-cake, and potatoes, 

 turnips or carrots. 



&l)c Visitor. 



CONCORD, N. H., AUGUST 31, 1848. 



The Mountain and Lake Region of New Hamp- 

 shire and Maine in the mouth of August. 



The month of August has opened to us a new 

 leaf of information from which our estimation 

 has been greatly raised of the value of the soil 

 and the richness of the resources of New Hamp- 

 shire. On the day of this writing, the 15th of 

 the month, we find ourselves among the moun- 

 tains twenty miles eastward from Connecticut 

 river about a dozen miles south of the line of 

 the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, within 

 four miles of the westerly line of the State of 

 Maine where it crosses a bay of the Umbagog 

 lake. The Umbagog is but a smaller part of a 

 body of lakes and bays which stretch still further 

 north-east in the State of Maine. All these wa- 

 ters with the Margallaway river reaching around 

 to the extreme north-east point of New Hamp- 

 shire are condensed below into the single stream 

 of the Androscoggin which discharges itself 

 with the waters of the Kennebeck into the 

 ocean far down the coast below Portland at 

 Bath. Within a stone's throw of where we sit 

 is the only free bridge all the way on this length- 

 ened river: this has just been erected within a 

 mile of the outlet of the lake over a rapid de- 

 scending about thirty feet in the distance of two 

 miles: the span of the bridge between the two 

 stone abutments entirely across the stream is 

 one hundred and thirty-eight feet. This bridge, 

 in a poor town of New Hampshire of only 

 thirty-three voters — poor not for lack of excel- 

 lent soil, but poor because shut out from a better 

 settled country for the want of good roads — 

 covered and protected against decay from expo- 

 sure of its planks to the weather — has been just 

 built at an expense nearly of twelve hundred 

 dollars. Bragg's tavern in Errol stands within a 

 few rods of this bridge, his house, barn and sta- 

 bles standing very near a level with the running 

 stream which courses along its waters in the 

 noise of a continued steady pouring of rain. At 

 the foot of the fall near by below the river 

 widens into a bay of the size of a respectable 

 pond, and into it falls a considerable stream hav- 

 ing its source in the Dixville Notch ten miles 

 north-west and by another small stream still a 

 little to the north coming out of a beautiful 

 pond some two miles further off. At the point 

 of our position Mr. James F. Bragg moved from 

 the State of Maine into a log hut twenty-two 

 years ago. The constant moving of the waters 

 in a rapid dashing over the rocks close by makes 

 a continued fresh air not generally felt any 

 where else in the warmest sultry day of August. 



Mr. Bragg came here with a young family which | 

 has been increased to the number of seven 

 grown-up children — sons and daughters to all 

 appearance exceedingly well trained and brought 

 up, the most of them married and well settled in 

 life — and in the whole term of his residence has 

 never employed a professed physician. There 

 is not perhaps any other part of the world so 

 healthful as the mountain and hill region of New 

 England ; and it is remarkable that in families 

 so scattered as to he unable to call a physician 

 on any common emergency the whole number 

 of children up to half a score is frequently raised 

 without the occurrence of a single death. 



The Dixville notch, which from its position is 

 seen by comparatively few persons, is a greater 

 curiosity than either the White Mountain or the 

 Franconia mountain passes. There is a more 

 immediate and greater rise and fall at this north- 

 ern notch : the rent where the top crags come 

 down at the height of perhaps a thousand feet 

 perpendicular coursing along for the distance of 

 a mile is so regular that it seems on looking 

 over head as if a bridge might be thrown across 

 in a single span. On the westerly or Connecti- 

 cut river side of this notch the rocks continually 

 breaking and falling from the top seem to be as 

 of petrified wood splitting aud splintering off" in 

 straight rift; but directly turning over to the 

 other side of the ledge after falling two or three 

 hundred feet the rocks at once partake of the 

 granite character, being a ledge from which 

 seems to have issued large boulders scattered 

 at intervals down to where the waters of the 

 Androscoggin come down from the north-east. 



Very singular has been the effect of the abra- 

 sion of waters which at some period of the 

 earth's existence broke through the long moun- 

 tain ridge to the eastward of the Connecticut 

 river. Not to mention points further south 

 which we have seen in Massachusetts, the well 

 at the Orange ledge now torn up for the pur- 

 poses of the Northern railroad, the gorges at 

 Franconia and through the White Mountains, as 

 well as the pass at the Dixville notch, all furnish 

 evidence that the pouring over of waters at 

 some distant point of time did this great work 

 of finding a lower level in the mountains. It is 

 remarkable of these lower points in every in- 

 stance that wherever a valley and a stream come 

 down from the one side at the end generally of 

 a considerable level at the higher point aiiolhef 

 stream commences going down a valley upon 

 the other side. 



The town of Colehrook, six miles wide, ex- 

 tends nearly ten miles from the Connecticut 

 river eastward very near the Dixville notch. It 

 is a town of most beautifully productive soil, 

 whether upon the streams or high lands. Its 

 farms and houses make a very handsome ap- 

 pearance wherever the eye catches them: the 

 land is rich in grass and pasturage: at this sea- 

 son the cultivated fields are exuberant with their 

 vegetable growth. The soil seems to be of that 

 slaty limestone formation always green in sum- 

 mer, seldom affected by drought, and forever 

 productive iu the grasses when they are given 

 the pre-eminence. From a hill in the rear of 

 the village of Colehrook corner we look east- 

 ward up the Mohawk river there uniting with 

 the Connecticut twelve miles into the notch as 

 seeming upon a level : the actual rise from the 

 bank of the river to the notch is said to be six 

 hundred feet. The road here at not a very great 

 expense might run up to the notch nearly a 

 level. Made as the country first opened for set- 



tlement it winds its way upon the hills so as to 

 present several sharp pitches. As this must ne- 

 cessarily become a road of great travel, the in- 

 habitants will find it for their interest — the soon- 

 er the better — to lay out their road upon a level 

 all the way. It might be constructed at an ex- 

 pense much less than to lay out considerable 

 sums in continually attempting to improve the 

 steep hills; and when once well made the na- 

 ture of the land is such that much repairs will 

 not be necessary. Colehrook, long ago, even be- 

 fore the part from the river had been much set- 

 tled, was declared by Philip Carrigain, the prac- 

 tical map-constructor who personally visited and 

 perambulated the lines of the towns in his 

 maps of the State, to be one of the two best 

 townships of the State. He was not mistaken 

 as to |the excellence of the quality of the soil : 

 it not only opens well, but it retains for more 

 than a quarter of a century its original freshness 

 of mowing land and pasture. Its cultivated 

 fields, grown smoother by the plough, look upon 

 us with the cheerfulness of almost animated na- 

 ture. The cattle and sheep are here counted in 

 larger numbers. There is not to be met a yoke 

 of oxen or young steer or heifer, a horse or a 

 colt, that fails to be fat and sleek. The herds- 

 grass heads out in the pastured grounds aud 

 along the roads, and the clover honey-suckle 

 springs thick in the roads along the horse and 

 wheel paths. 



Colehrook corner is the most northerly consid- 

 erable village in New Hampshire: it is only 

 eight miles from the monument which marks 

 the dividing line on the 45th parallel of latitude 

 between the State of Vermont and the domin- 

 ions of the British queen. New Hampshire on 

 the line of Hall's stream and the highlands 

 stretches perhaps thirty miles to the north-east 

 of the monument where it touches the 45th de- 

 gree. Up the Mohawk east of the river village 

 is a factory village, which we are sorry to re- 

 mark bears symptoms of decay peculiar some- 

 times to manufactures far removed from ready 

 access to the materials supplying their business. 

 A Mr. Smith of Connecticut nearly forty years 

 ago invested much capital both in the rearing of 

 sheep and in the manufacture of woolens : for 

 several years good cloths, the best of that 

 known as the Canada cloths, were made here. 

 The generous expenditure of capital here ter- 

 minated as might be expected, in an extensive 

 dilapidation of well constructed buildings, the 

 remnants of which are still standing. Some- 

 thing is still done here in the way of carding, 

 spinning, weaving and dressing woolens for 

 country customers. 



The Dixville notch brings to recollection the 

 labors and sacrifices of a citizen of New Hamp- 

 shire whose great enterprise and public spirit, 

 while he lived, palled at no common obstacle. 

 The late Col. Timothy Dix, who died on the 

 frontier in the war of 1812 an officer of the 

 regular army, the father of the present distin- 

 guished Senator in Congress of New Vork who 

 was a cadet and hoy in camp with his father at 

 the time of his death — also of Capt. Dix, another 

 brother who has distinguished himself in Mexico 

 — was for several years a merchant trailer of Bos- 

 cawen near Concord. He obtained a grant of 

 land ami. I the mountains from the State more 

 than forty years ago, and attempted its settle- 

 ment by constructing the first passvvay over the 

 State for many miles north of Lancaster. He 

 had the aid of a lottery for this purpose — then 

 quite a common method of raising money for 



