70 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



sented that here was the residence of the Great Spirit, who, with a 

 motion of the hand, could raise a storm and destroy the daring adven- 

 turer who presumed to approach his abode. They never felt, amid the 

 sublimity and awfulness of the mountains, that sense of ownership and 

 appropriation which was inspired by rivers and lakes, with their calmer 

 beauty and life-sustaining productiveness. Thus, while solitary mountains 

 throughout the state, like nearly all the rivers, still preserve the names of 

 their ancient baptism, always the last memorial of a departed race, the 

 central portion of the White Mountains is wholly English in name and 

 associations. We do not know that the Indians distinguished them by 

 any other than a collective name. This, according to Dr. Belknap, was 

 Agiocochook in one dialect, and in another Waumbekket-Methna, signify- 

 ing Mountains with snowy foreheads. The English name White Moun- 

 tains we meet in the earliest account of them that was published. It is 

 not improbable that this name was applied to them while as yet they 

 were only known to adventurous mariners in their exploring voyages 

 along the coast. 



It is impossible to ascertain with certainty who first proposed to call 

 the highest of these summits Mt. Washington. Dr. Belknap, in 1792, 

 says of it, — "it has lately been distinguished by the name of Mount 

 Washington." He quotes from the manuscript of Dr. Cutler, in another 

 place, the account of the zones of vegetation, where mention is made of 

 " Mount Washington" as if it were well known. As his visit was made 

 in 1 784, it is not unlikely that the name was proposed soon after the 

 close of the revolutionary war, probably by Dr. Cutler's party. Of other 

 prominent peaks, besides those named by the party of 1820, Mt. Clinton 

 received its name from some undiscoverable source, certainly before 1837. 

 Mts. Clay and Jackson were named by Mr. Oakes. This gentleman was 

 with Prof. Tuckerman, and sent up his guide, Amasa Allen, to build a 

 fire on the top of the south spur of Clinton ; and thus, with a fiery bap- 

 tism, the mountain was christened Jackson. Mt. Willard was named 

 from Mr. Sidney Willard, of Boston ; and it is probable that the name of 

 Mt. Webster was proposed by Mr. Willard for the peak known to earlier 

 visitors as Notch mountain. Lower down the Saco, Mts. Crawford and 

 Resolution, as well as the Giant's stairs, received names from Dr. S. A. 

 Bemis. The names of Tuckerman's ravine, Oakes's gulf, and Bigelow's 



