TOPOGRAPHY. I 83 



lowest line of depression that can be found in this area. Commencing at 

 the boundary of Quebec and Vermont, with 1,232 feet elevation above 

 the sea, it rises to 1,357 f^et at Norton, and thence descends to Connec- 

 ticut river at North Stratford, which is 915 feet. Following the river 

 down to Groveton, there may be a fall of twenty feet. The road pro- 

 ceeds up the Upper Ammonoosuc, attaining 1,080 feet at Milan water- 

 station. Thence it descends to the Androscoggin valley, passing into 

 Maine with an altitude of 713 feet. 



Fig. 21. — MT. LYON, FROM GUILDHALL FALLS. 



At the entrance to the Upper Ammonoosuc valley there stands a bold 

 ridge, known formerly as Cape Horn, in Northumberland. Mr. Hunting- 

 ton has proposed to designate it as Mt. Lyon, in honor of J. E. Lyon, 

 president of the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad. The ridge is too 

 precipitous to be cultivated. A sketch of it is given in Fig. 21. 



There are two prominent lines of depression, running in a north-east- 

 erly direction, in the Coos region. The first follows the Androscoggin, 

 from Shelburne to Umbagog lake, 713 to 1,256 feet; the second follows 

 the Connecticut river, from 830 feet at Dalton to 1,619 feet at Connec- 

 ticut lake, and thence to 2,146 feet at the gap above the source of the 

 Connecticut. All the rest of this district is more elevated than these 

 three lines of depression. 



Both the elevation and the high latitude of this district render the 

 climate of this district, including the White Mountains, the most rigorous 

 of any in the state. Plants that suffer from protracted winters cannot 

 therefore be successfully cultivated here. Nothing is done with the vine, 



