EXPLORATIONS AMONG THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 6 1 



them to the broadest portion of the comparatively level tract at the 

 southern base of Mt. Washington, the south-eastern part of which is 

 the grassy expanse of some forty acres, known as Bigelow's Lawn. 

 Between this and the summit they encountered the Lake of the Clouds, 

 and smaller ponds, which no doubt furnished Gorges with a part of the 

 sources of his rivers ; and no one who has looked into the abyss some- 

 what absurdly denominated the " Gulf of Mexico," will wonder at its 

 notice in the brief account of the first explorer. E. Tuckerman, in 1843, 

 endeavored to trace the path of these earliest ascents, and was surprised 

 with a view of Mt. Washington as a somewhat regular pyramid rising 

 from an apparent plain, which is the way it was described by Gorges, and 

 afterwards by Josselyn. Davis's bridle-path, opened in 1845, traversed the 

 bold part of this ridge, and afforded the same view while it was in use. 



The first mention of the White Mountains in print occurs in John 

 Josselyn's "New England's Rarities Discovered," which was pubhshed in 

 1672, containing the earliest notice of the botany of the country. The 

 materials for this and a subsequent work were collected by the author 

 during two visits to New England, coming first in 1638 and remaining 

 fifteen months, and again in 1663, remaining eight years. In his account 

 of the mountains, he describes a pond upon the highest summit, — either 

 from a defect of memory, or because he was satisfied with seeing them 

 at a distance, without making the ascent, and mistook its position, as 

 described by explorers. " Four-score miles," says Josselyn, " to the North- 

 west of Scarborow, a Ridge of Mountains runs North-west and North-east 

 an hundred leagues, known by the name of the White Mountains, upon 

 which lieth snow all the year, and is a Landmark twenty miles off at Sea. 

 It is rising ground from the seashore to these Hills, and they are inacces- 

 sible except by the Gullies which the dissolved Snow hath made. In these 

 Gulhes grow Saven bushes, which, being taken hold of, are a good help 

 to the climbing discoverer. Upon the top of the highest of these Moun- 

 tains is a large Level or Plain, of a day's journey over, whereon nothing 

 grows but Moss. At the farther end of this Plain is another Hill called 

 the Sugarloaf, to outward appearance a rude heap of massie stones piled 

 one upon another; and you may, as you ascend, step from one stone to 

 another as if you were going up a pair of stairs, but winding still about 

 the Hill till you come to the top, which will require half a day's time,— 



