surgeons' reports — MASSACHUSETTS — TENTH DISTRICT. 219 



MASSACHUSETTS— TENTH DISTRICT. 

 Extracts from report of Dk. Samuel Duncan. 



The draft in the tenth districtof Massachusetts took place at the eit.v-hall, Springfield, July 14, 

 1803, and was continued in the same i)ublic uianner from day to day till the nunilier riMinui'd 

 (.jjo'Jj) was drawn. Gieatly to the credit of the district, it passed off' quietly and orderly, though 

 emissaries of the New York mob were present, as was afterward ascertained, to inaugurate a riot 

 had an opi)ortunity offered. Perhaps the precautions used contributed somewhat toward so 

 desirable a result. 



The board, misapprehending the number which would report immediately on receiving their 

 notifications, issued too manj' at first, and the result was that those who supposed they had surfi- 

 cient grounds for exemption came at once to procure it, and for two or three days the crowd around 

 the provost-marshal's office was greater than could be examined, much to the annoyance of the 

 board, and, I doubt not, of the drafted men. As soon, however, as we could ascertain the working 

 capacity of the office, the men were notified to appear in such numbers each day as could well be 

 examined, and thereafter there was no conii»laint of delay. 



Meanwhile, paragraph 85, Regulations of tlie Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau, had found 

 its way into the newsi)apers, and it afforded drafted men an excellent opportunity for studying 

 the causes of exemption and of jireparing certifl(;ates of disability. Of thirty drafted men from 

 one town, twenty-seven had certificates of disability from one surgeon. 



The tentb enrollment-district of Massachusetts is made up of the counties of Berkshire and 

 Hampden. Berkshire has the larger area — namely, 950 square miles — and its greatest length is 

 about fifty miles, reaching across the entire State on its western border. It is bounded on the 

 north by Vermont, soutli by Connecticut, and west by New York, and embraces that portion of 

 the State included between the Taconic and Green Mountains. 



These mountain-ranges, often rising into peaks, ranging in height from 2,000 to 3,500 feet above 

 tidewater, and still clothed in |)rimeval forests of fir and maple, possess many points of rare 

 beauty and grandeur, ;ind, from their real or fancied resemblance to the Juras, have given to the 

 country the appellation of the Switzerland of America. There are two systems of rivers, which 

 drain the surface-waters: one flowing northward and emptying into the Hudson, the other soutli 

 into Long Island Sound. These rivers have given their names to the two principal valleys, the 

 Hoosac and Housatonic, of which the latter has the longer slope, extending to the Connecticut 

 line and from thence to the Sound. The valleys are again divided in their length by detached 

 mountains, of which Gnyloisk, the highest peak, is 3,515 feet in altitude. Throughout the county, 

 there are many narrow valleys, mostly at right angles with the mountain-ranges, through which 

 the smaller branches of the rivers flow to their juuctiou with the main channels, furnishing motive- 

 power for the multitude of manufacturing establishments which everywhere meet the eye along 

 the streams. 



The rock of the Taconic Mountains is mainly talcose slate, of no value for mechanical pur- 

 poses ; but the fragments distributed through the soil by continual disintegration aflord valuable 

 nutriment to grain and grasses. 



The Green Mountains, which form the eastern boundary of the county, are principally made up 

 of talcose and mica slates, quartz, and gneiss. The Hoosac tunnel, now in the process of construc- 

 tion on the line of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, pierces this mountain through the talcose 

 slate for the distance of four miles and a half. The mineral wealth of the county is principally 

 iron, marble, lime, white quartz, and sand of fine quartz, largely used in the manufacture of glass. 

 There are thirty-one towns in the county, containing, according to the census of 1860, 55,136 

 inhabitants. 



The county of Hampden lies along the southern border of the State, on the line of Connecticut, 

 and at right angles to the county of Berkshire. Its length is about fifty-five miles, and it contains 

 nearly six hundred and fifty square miles of territory. That portion boidering on Berkshire County, 

 and lying on tlie top and eastern slope of the Green !\Iountains, is much broken by sharp ridges 

 and ravines, and is noted for the abrupt boldness and picturesque beauty of its scenery. The land 



