Mineralogy and Geology of the White Mountains. 115 



The White Mountains. 



It is remarkable, while hundreds of travellers annually visit 

 these mountains, attracted by the grandeur and beauty of the 

 scenery, the salubrity of the air and the delights of the deep re- 

 tirement from the busy world, that so little has been done to de- 

 velope the geological character of the region. We may hope the 

 day is not distant, when, in the geological survey of this state, 

 proposed by our Executive, this great desideratum will be accom- 

 plished. The labor and expense of exploring the structure of 

 this extensive district with its associated ranges, is altogether be- 

 yond the resources of an individual ; while, if prosecuted under 

 a liberal legislative provision, the results could not fail to promote 

 largely the welfare of the community and bring to light valuable 

 mineral resources, and advance very much the interests of science. 



These mountains will ever be memorable for the dreadful storm 

 of August 28th, 1826, the awful effects of which, even at this 

 period, are every where visible. 



The deep channels, worn by the avalanches that then de- 

 scended from their summits, still form a striking and picturesque 

 feature in the scenery, and the immense heaps of ruins, boulders, 

 and large isolated masses of granite that cover their base, and are 

 strewed in the beds of the streams, testify to the long continued 

 action of degrading forces. 



In addition to the graphic accounts of this event in this Jour- 

 nal, Vol. XV, p. 217, some facts came to my knowledge, which I 

 do not recollect to have seen published ; and as they were com- 

 municated by eye witnesses, and serve to illustrate the power and 

 local character of the storm, they are worthy of record. 



At Bartlett, twenty miles below the Notch, the water of the 

 Saco, which runs through it, rose on-the morning of the 29th of 

 August, twenty-six feet in one hour, and was filled with earth, 

 like mud, and the sulphureous odor emitted by the attrition of 

 the rocks borne along by the torrent, was almost insupportable. 

 Rev. Mr. Wilcox, in his account, Vol. xv., says, the water of the 

 Amonoosuck, about ten miles from the mountains, was, at day- 

 break on the 29th, raised from a depth of three or four feet to 

 twenty feet, and sixty feet wide, and " as thick with earth as it 

 could be without being changed into mud." A gentleman of this 

 village, Hanover, (which, by the com'se of the Connecticut, and 



