Notices of Mount Washington and the vicinity. 73 



The manner also in which the layers of clay, sand, and other 

 soils are distributed is important, and comes within the province 

 of geology, I noticed in one town a spot where this was very 

 evident, the soil being sandy, and resting on a clay substratum. 

 In one part of the field the corn was then four feet high, and in 

 the other only two, although the soil was exactly alike and the 

 manure the same in nature and amount. The cause was traced 

 to the difference in the depth to a certain stratum of clay which 

 was near the surface, where the corn was luxuriant, and deep be- 

 low, where the corn was feeble. So the manure sank in the lat- 

 ter case too low to be reached by the roots of plants. 



I have discovered the actual bituminization of peat in a bog, 

 at Limerick, in Maine. The substance is in fibrous masses like 

 brown coal, and burns with yellow flame and smoke. It is found 

 ten feet from the surface of the bog. When this substance is 

 heated in a glass tube, it gives out an abundance of coal gas, and 

 bitumen distils off freely. This, I believe, is the first instance 

 in which peat has been observed actually passing into bitumin- 

 ous coal. I have also found another curious fact, viz. three beds 

 of anthracite coal in slate that has been melted into hornstone by 

 a great mass of trap rocks. 



Art. IV. — Popular Notices of Mount Washington and the 

 vicinity ; by G. W. Nichols, — loith additional remarks by 



the Editor. 



Bedford, N. Y., Jan. 10th, 1838. 



TO PROF. SILLIMAN. 



Dear Sir — Having made a short tour through New England, 

 in the surhmer of 1836, I now send you for the American Jour- 

 nal, some notices of scenery and other objects, which fell under 

 my observation while passing through the White mountains of 

 New Hampshire. 



On Wednesday, August 17, 1836, I left Bath, (a neat and 

 enterprising village on the Amonoosuck river,) for the White 

 mountains. The ride from this place was truly delightful ; for it 

 was under a clcEir sky, and very agreeably diversified by beau- 

 tiful and splendid scenery. Our road lay, a part of the time, 

 along the picturesque banks of the Amonoosuck, and it led us also 



Vol. XXXIV.— No. 1. 10 



