CHAPTER IV. 



Journey from Portland to the White Mountains. Plants. Churches, 

 School-houses. Temperance Hotel. Intelligence of New Englanders. 

 Climate, Consumption. Conway. Division of Property. Every Man 

 his own Tenant. A\\tumnal Tints. Bears hybernating. Willey Slide. 

 Theory of Scratches and Grooves on Rocks. Scenery. Waterfalls 

 and Ravines. The Notch. Forest Trees and Mountain Plants. 

 Fabyan s Hotel. Echo. 



Sept. 28, 1845. LEAVING Portland and the sea-coast, we 

 now struck inland in a westerly direction toward the White 

 Mountains, having hired a carriage which carried us to Standish. 

 We passed at first over a low, featureless country, but enlivened 

 by the brilliant autumnal coloring of the foliage, especially the 

 bright red, purple, and yellow tints of the maple. The leaves 

 of these trees and of the scrub oak had been made to change 

 color by the late frost of the 10th of this month. On the borders 

 of the road, on each side, mixed with the fragrant &quot; sweet fern,&quot; 

 we saw abundance of the Spircea tomentosa, its spike of purplish 

 flowers now nearly faded. The name of &quot; hard hack&quot; was given 

 to it by the first settlers, because the stalk turned the edge of 

 the mower s scythe. There were also golden rods, everlastings, 

 and asters in profusion ; one of the asters being called &quot; frost 

 blow,&quot; because flowering after the first frost. We also gathered 

 on the ground the red fruit of the checkerberry (Gaulteria pro 

 cumbent), used in New England to flavor sweetmeats. By the 

 side of these indigenous plants was the common English sell-heal 

 (Prunella vulgaris), the mullein ( Verbascum tliapsus), and other 

 flowers, reminding me of the remark of an American botanist, 

 that New England has become the garden of European weeds ; 

 so that in some agricultural counties near the coast, such as Essex 

 in Massachusetts, the exotics almost outnumber the native plants. 

 It is, however, found, that the farther we travel northward, 

 toward the region where North America and Europe approach 



