CHAP. V.] GRANITE ROCKS 73 



lands, they first became connected with the continent, is, as we 

 have seen, of very modern date, geologically speaking. It is, 

 in fact, so recent as to belong to the epoch when species now 

 contemporaneous with man already inhabited this planet. But 

 if we attempt to carry our retrospect still farther into the past, 

 and to go back to the date when the rocks themselves of the 

 White Mountains originated, we are lost in times of extreme 

 antiquity. No light is thrown on this inquiry by embedded 

 organic remains, of which the strata of gneiss, mica schist, clay- 

 slate, and quartzite are wholly devoid. These masses are 

 traversed by numerous veins of granite and greenstone, which 

 are therefore newer than the stratified crystalline rocks which 

 they intersect ; and the abrupt manner in which these veins 

 terminate at the surface attests how much denudation or removal 

 by water of solid matter has taken place. Another question of 

 a chronological kind may yet deserve attention, namely, the epoch 

 of the movements which threw the beds of gneiss and the associ 

 ated rocks into their present bent, disturbed, and vertical positions. 

 This subject is also involved in considerable obscurity, although 

 it seems highly probable that the crystalline strata of New Hamp 

 shire acquired their internal arrangement at the same time as the 

 fossiliferous beds of the Appalachian or Alleghany chain : and 

 we know that they assumed their actual strike and dip sub 

 sequently to the origin of the coal measures, which enter so largely 

 into the structure of that chain. 



From Fabyan s Inn, at the foot of Mount Washington, wo 

 traveled about twenty-five miles westward to Bethlehem, and 

 thence southward to the Franconia Notch, a deep and picturesque 

 ravine in the mountains of granite. On the way I conversed 

 with the driver of our carriage about the village churches, arid, 

 being very communicative, he told me he was a Free-will Baptist, 

 but had only become a Christian five years ago, when he was 

 awakened from a state of indifference by a revival which took 

 place near Bethlehem. This meeting, he said, was got up , j.ud 

 managed by the Methodists ; but some Baptists, and one ortho 

 dox (Independent or Congrcgationalist) minister had assisted, in. 

 all sixteen ministers, and for twenty-one days in succession there 



VOL. T. D 



