222 Miscellaneous Notices of Mountain Scenery^ <^c. 



there to this hour. This catastrophe presents a very striking 

 example of sudden diluvial action, and enables one to form 

 some feeble conception of the universal effects of the vindic- 

 tive deluge which once swept every mountain, and ravaged 

 every plain and defile. — In the present instance, there was 

 not one avalanche only, but many. The most extensive 

 single one, was on the other side of the barrier which forms 

 the northern boundary of the notch. It was described to 

 us by Mr. Abbot of Conway, as having shd, in the whole, 

 three miles — with an average breadth of a quarter of a mile ; 

 it overwhelmed a bridge, and filled a river course, turning 

 the stream, and now presents an unparalleled mass of ruins. 

 There are places on the declivities of the mountains in the 

 notch, where acres of the steep sides were swept bare of 

 their forests, and of every moveable thing, and the naked 

 rock is now exposed to view. 



In the greater number of intances however, the avalanches 

 commenced almost at the mountain top, or high upon its 

 slope. We pursued some of them to a considerable distance 

 up the mountain, and two gentlemen of our party with 

 much toil, followed one of them quite to the summit. The 

 excavation commencing, generally, as soon as there was 

 any thing moveable — in a trench of a few yards in depth, 

 and of a few rods in width, descends down the mountains 

 — widening and deepening — till it becomes a frightful chasm, 

 like a vast irregular hollow cone, with its apex near the 

 mountain top, and its bas^ at its foot, and there spreading 

 out into a wide and deep mass of ruins, of transported 

 earth, gravel stones, rocks and forest trees. 



The road is now again cleared, and rendered practicable 

 for strong wagons ; but centuries may roll by, and the catas- 

 trophe of August 1826, will still remain recorded in charac- 

 ters that can neither be effaced, nor misunderstood,* 



2. Letter of the Rev. Carlos Wilcox. 



Hanover, (N. H.) Sept. 2, 1826. 



I have just returned from an excursion to the White Moun- 

 tains, and shall now spend a day of rest in this village, in 



* The Willey house is again inhabited, and the family appear to feel no par- 

 ticular apprehension of a return of the calamity. It is again as before, a rest- 

 ing place for travellers, and although humble in its pretensions, is clean and 

 decent, and the family are very civil and respectable. 



