TOPOGRAPHY. 213 



covered by hard pan, which has somewhat of a sandy character, and ought 

 not to be confounded with the elevated plain above, for geological reasons. 

 Every large tributary below Manchester, as the Souhegan and Nashua 

 rivers, enlarges the bounds of the lowland, causing it to wind back among 

 the border hills for many miles. 



The valley of the Merrimack below Nashua in Massachusetts, in gen- 

 eral terms, may be said to agree exactly with its physical features in New 

 Hampshire below Manchester. 



VI. Coast Slope. This greatly resembles the lower Merrimack country. 

 It starts from the mountainous ridge bordering the Lake district on the 

 south, and is bounded westerly by the Merrimack river basin. The 

 northerly boundary consists of the following eminences, running in an 

 easterly direction: Mt. Bet, Mt. Holly, Cropple Crown mountain, and 

 Birch hill, with the Rattlesnake mountains for foot hills in New Durham ; 

 the Great Moose, Bald, Hall, and Parker's mountains in Middleton. The 

 range is cut through by Fellows's branch of the Salmon Falls river in 

 Wakefield (Union Village); and the hills to the east, in Milton, are low. 



In general, it may be stated that the entire northerly and westerly bor- 

 ders of this district, as represented upon the map, are the lines of highest 

 elevation, or the rim-edge of a basin, which slopes gently towards the 

 ocean, having miscellaneous ridges and isolated peaks scattered at ran- 

 dom over its surface. The first subdivision of this basin is a triangular 

 area, widest at the north, with a very prolonged and swelling apex. It is 

 situated between the Cochecho and Salmon Falls rivers, comprising New 

 Durham, Middleton, Milton, parts of Wakefield, Farmington, Rochester, 

 Dover, and the whole of the small towns of Somersworth and Rollins- 

 ford. Milton seems to have a culmination in Teneriffe mountain, near 

 its topographical centre. Middleton and New Durham slope uniformly 

 towards the two rivers, with lateral north-south ridges between tributary 

 streams. The Rochester portion is a perfectly flat, sandy, swampy plain, 

 226 feet above the sea. In the laterally expanded apex of the triangle, 

 there is a long elevation midway between the rivers, ending with Garrison 

 hill in Dover. 



A second subdivision may embrace the easterly flowing waters of the 

 Cochecho. This includes the south-easterly, bearing " New Durham ridge" 

 in the south corner of the town; the more extensive north east-south 



