322 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



upon the constancy of water-power to the best advantage, namely, upon 

 the mountain region of the state. Thus located, it is certain that they 

 will remain for a long time substantially as they now are, deprived indeed 

 of their heavier timber, but still dense woods ; so that this effect, which 

 is unquestionably of great importance in a consideration of our water- 

 power, will be at the same time permanent. (See p. 123.) 



The source of the main stream of the Merrimack river, — ^better known 

 north from its confluence with the Winnipiseogee under the name Pemi- 

 gewasset, — is Profile lake, situated in the midst of the Franconia ranges, 

 at the very foot of the mountain wall from whose top hang the jutting 

 rocks that make up the profile of the Old Man of the Mountains. This 

 little mountain lake is about 1950 feet above the sea. The first consider- 

 able tributary which the Pemigewasset receives is the East Branch, which 

 drains a wholly uninhabited basin 1 50 square miles in area, bounded, and 

 in the middle almost crossed, by ranges of high mountains. The descent 

 of this river, to the mouth of the East Branch, in a distance of nine miles, 

 is about 600 feet. From this point to Plymouth, a distance of 1 8 miles, it 

 descends about 900 feet ; in the next 25 miles to Franklin, where it receives 

 the Winnipiseogee, it descends about 175 feet, the descent from Lake 

 Winnipiseogee, 500 feet above the sea, being 225 feet. From this place 

 to the southern boundary of the state, a distance of 53 miles, its descent 

 is about 185 feet, the height of the Merrimack at the average stage of 

 water at this point being 90 feet above the sea. The water-power of this 

 distance is located, as on the Connecticut, at numerous falls, separated 

 from each other by intervals of a few miles each, affording unimproved 

 sites for manufacturing cities as favorable as any already occupied. The 

 tributaries of this river are also specially important for their water-power. 



North-east of the White Mountains a large amount of water-power is 

 furnished by the Androscoggin river, which has its sources and the lower 

 portion of its course in the state of Maine. Being connected with a 

 chain of lakes which can be employed as immense reservoirs, — ^for which 

 they are already used to obtain a sufficient supply of water at the last 

 part of the log-driving season, — this river can be made perfectly reliable 

 for water-power in the driest summer. The sources of this river, in both 

 its upper drainage areas of the range of lakes and Magalloway river, are 

 from the high water-shed ridge which forms the north-west boundary of 



