Miscellaneous Notices of Mountain Scenery, ^c. 227 



was in such a state, that they were obliged to walk to the 

 Notch House, lately kept by Mr. Willey, a distance of six 

 miles. All the bridges over the Amonoosuck, five in num- 

 ber, those over the Saco, and those over the tributary streams 

 of both were gone. In some places the road was excava- 

 ted to the depth of fifteen and twenty feet ; and in others it 

 was covered with earth, and rocks, and trees, to as great 

 a height. In the Notch, and along the deep defile below it, 

 for a mile and a half, to the Notch House, and as far as 

 could be seen beyond it, no appearance of the road, except 

 in one place for two or three rods, could be discovered. 

 The steep sides of the mountain, first on one hand, then on 

 the other, and then on both, had slid down into this narrow 

 passage, and formed a continued mass from one end to the 

 other, so that a turnpike will probably not be made through 

 it again very soon, if ever. The Notch House was found un- 

 injured ; though the barn adjoining it by a shed, was crush- 

 ed ; and under its ruins were two dead horses. The house 

 was entirely deserted ; the beds were tumbled ; their cov- 

 ering was turned down : and near them upon chairs and on 

 the floor lay the wearing apparel of the several members 

 of the family ; while the money and the papers of Mr. Wil- 

 ley were lying in his open bar. From these circumstances 

 it seemed almost certain, that the whole family were des- 

 troyed ; and it soon became quite so, by the arrival of a broth- 

 er of Mr. Crawford from his father's, six miles farther east. 

 From him we learnt that the valley of the Saco for many 

 miles, presented an uninterrupted scene of desolation. The 

 two Crawfords were the nearest neighbors of Willey. Two 

 days had now elapsed since the storm, and nothing had been 

 heard of his family in either direction. There was no long- 

 er any room to doubt that they had been alarmed by the 

 noise of the destruction around them, had sprung from their 

 beds, and fled naked from the house, and in the utter dark- 

 ness had been soon overtaken by the falling mountains and 

 rushing torrents. The family which is said to have been ami- 

 able and respectable, consisted of nine persons, Mr. Wil- 

 ley and his wife and five young children of theirs, with a 

 hired man and boy. After the fall of a single slide last 

 June, they were more ready to take the alarm, though they 

 did not consider their situation dangerous, as none had ev- 

 er been known to fall there previous to this. Whether more 

 rain fell now than had ever been known to fall before in 

 the same length of time, at least since the sides of the moun- 



