CHAP. VI.] RETURN FROM THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 87 



my wife. He immediately apologized, and went up to the two 

 young men and gave them their choice to take their seats behind 

 him or be left on the road. To my surprise, they quietly accepted 

 the former alternative. The ladies, for the first half mile, were 

 mute, then burst out into a fit of laughter, amused at the ludicrous 

 position of their companions on the outside, who were sitting in a 

 pelting rain. They afterward behaved with decorum, and I 

 mention the incident because it was the only unpleasant adven 

 ture of the kind which we experienced in the course of all our 

 travels in the United States. In general, there is no country 

 where a woman could, with so much comfort and security, under 

 take a long journey alone. 



As we receded from the mountains, following the banks of the 

 river Pemigewasset, the narrow valley widened gradually, till, 

 first, a small, grassy, alluvial flat, and, at length, some cultivated 

 fields, intervened between the stream and the boundary rocks of 

 mica schist and granite. Occasionally the low river-plain was 

 separated from the granite by a terrace of sand and gravel. 

 Usually many boulders, with a few large detached blocks, some 

 of them nine feet in diameter, were strewed over the granite 

 rocks. These, as generally throughout New England, break 

 out here and there, from beneath their covering of drift, in smooth 

 bosses, or rounded, dome-shaped forms, called in the Alps &quot; roches 

 moutonnees.&quot; The contrast is very picturesque between the 

 level and fertile plain and the region of lichen-covered rock, or 

 sterile, quartzose sand, partially clothed with the native forest, 

 now in its autumnal beauty, and lighted up by a bright sun. 

 On the flat ground bordering the river, we passed many wagons 

 laden with yellow heads of Indian corn, over which were piled 

 many a huge pumpkin of a splendid reddish orange color. These 

 vehicles were drawn by oxen, with long horns spreading out 

 horizontally. 



We stopped for the night in an inland village on which the 

 maritime name of Plymouth has been bestowed. Here we spent 

 a Sunday. There were two meeting-houses in the place, one 

 Congregational and the other Methodist, which shared between 

 them, in nearly equal proportions, the whole population of the 



