374 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 



named, planted the seeds of this science at Fryeburg. He 

 imparted to the Principal of the Academy, Mr. Cook, a taste 

 for this useful branch of natural history. He transmitted to 

 him a few specimens of foreign minerals, which have served 

 as a nucleus, around which are now assembled six or eight 

 hundred, and, perhaps, a thousand elegant American speci- 

 mens. These are systematically arranged, and occupy, and 

 adorn, an upper apartment in the academical edifice. 



Amethyst, of a delicate purple color, in hexagonal prisms, 

 is found near the bottom of an avalanche, occasioned by the 

 flood of 1826, a mile above the elder Crawford's, on the Saco 

 river. The crystals are of very different magnitudes ; the 

 smallest being the most perfect. Some of them are white 

 and transparent, like quartz, and terminated at one extremity, 

 by six sided pyramids of the richest amethyst. 



Smoky quartz occurs at the same locality, crystallized and 

 massive. At this spot, the mineralogical traveller will delight 

 to linger some hours. It is the only spot, known to me, on, 

 or near the White Hills, where specimens of much interest 

 have been found. A large mass may be seen, in Crawford's 

 bar-room, constituted chiefly of the two minerals, amethyst 

 and crystallized smoky quartz. 



Most of the country between Portland and these moun- 

 tains, is extremely rocky, but the soil is good, yielding large 

 crops of grass and grain. The rocks are principally granite, 

 which, in a number of townships, is wrought and employed as 

 a building stone. The Unitarian Church in Portland is con- 

 structed of this stone, obtained by means of wedges, and not 

 hewn. It is a noble edifice. 



The object which monopolizes, and rivets to itself, the at- 

 tention of the stranger, as he passes up the valley of the Saco, 

 is the desolation, produced by the deluge, on that awful 

 night of August 28, 1826. The windows of heaven were 

 then literally opened wide, and in a sad moment the full con- 

 tents of the sky exhausted on this loftiest and wildest portion 

 of our country. Traces of the disastrous effects of the moun- 

 tain torrent are visible on the borders of the Saco, in several 

 places in the township of Conway, and even below ; but they 

 become remarkably striking on arriving at Crawford's inn, 

 situated on a tract of land, called Hart's location. His farm 

 is nearly ruined ; its most productive soil is all swept away, 

 and gone to enrich the lands below ; lands whose increased 



