172 STRATIGRAPIIICAL GEOLOGY. . 



tain may average a depth of twenty feet, and the inclination of the floor 

 is too steep to allow one to descend or ascend in it. The schists on the 

 south stand on their edges, with the strike N. 20° W. The dyke has 

 caused the formation of joints parallel to itself in the schists, almost to 

 be confounded with strata. In this flume I found, growing rather spar- 

 ingly, a beautiful flower, the Piugiiicula vulgaris, or Butterwort. It is 

 said to range from " western New York to Lake Superior and northward." 

 None of the botanists who have explored the White Mountains for plants 

 speak of it; so it must have escaped their notice. In memory of this 

 plant, therefore, I will call the chasm the " Butterwort flume," to dis- 

 tinguish it from the one farther north. As one stands on the slope of 

 Mt. Webster, or even at the bottom of the steep hill in the Notch, and 

 looks up Mt, Willard, he can see this iiume extending downwards for 

 perhaps 500 feet of vertical descent, or pointing directly towards a black- 

 smith shop on the railroad, about 3000 feet north of the Willey brook. 



North of the Butterwort flume the hard schists have the strike N. 30° 

 W., and a disposition to dip S. 60° W., scarcely less than vertical. Pres- 

 ently we come to another and larger flume, estimated to be 1000 or 1200 

 feet from the top of Mt. Willard. The rock has the strike N. 27° W., 

 with vertical strata. Looking east one sees a narrow chasm with the 

 course N. 68° E., curving presently a little more northerly, and seeming 

 to point to the Silver cascade on the east side of the valley. After 

 travelling through the flume, I made the following estimates of its size. 

 It is 350 feet long, seven feet wide at the top, varying to six, ten, five, 

 and finally eight feet. It is everywhere widest at the top. The walls are 

 generally vertical, the south wall occasionally hanging slightly over a 

 perpendicular. I judge that portions of this wall rise 100 feet above the 

 floor ; usually they will not exceed half this amount. The top rises 220 

 feet above the lower opening, the latter being 580 feet above the railroad 

 beneath. The place is evidently one of interest to tourists, and the pro- 

 prietors of the Crawford house have already cut a path to it, and propose 

 to add a rustic bridge, so that its beauties may be better appreciated. 

 Doubtless many persons have noticed a cleft in the upper edge of the 

 mountain, when looking in that direction from the bridge at the base of 

 the Silver cascade : that is this new flume. 



It may be proper here to state that this dyke may once have been con- 



