Nitro- Glycerine. 



97 



Deerfield dam to the turbine wheels which drove the com- 

 pressors at the east end, and requested me to prepare for 

 him some twenty cartridges of nitro-glycerine for that pur- 

 pose. Dreading congealed nitro-glycerine, I warmed the 

 liquid to 90° before charging the cartridges, which were of 

 tin, wrapped them in several folds of warmed paper, and 

 packing them in sawdust warmed also to 90°, bound the case 

 containing them to the back of his cutter, and bade him 

 and his load God speed. He had a journey of nine miles 

 to travel, thermometer 9° F., over the deep snow-drifts on 

 the divide of the Hoosac mountain, seventeen hundred 

 feet to ascend, and the same number of feet to descend, 

 ere he reached his destination. Gliding over the slippery 

 snow, jarring along the bare wind-swept-portions of the 

 road, now and then jolting against the nigger head boulders 

 partially hidden by the snow-fall, with thirty pounds of 

 nitro-glycerine to back him, in about an hour's time from 

 starting, he reached the hill looking down on the valley 

 of the divide. A house by the side of the road was snowed 

 in to the windows of the second story, serving as a datum 

 line to estimate the depth of snow over which his course 

 lay. Deviating to the left so as to encircle this basin, and 

 encouraging his mare Snowdrop, he had compassed the 

 quadrant of a circle, and was trending towards the snow- 

 surrounded house, when a few plunges of the mare, a strug- 

 gle to regain upper ground, over went the cutter, the case 

 of cartridges became free, and as the lid of the box had 

 not been nailed to avoid jarring, the contents were dis- 

 tributed rapidly over the snow. To quiet the mare, re-ar- 

 range the harness, set the cutter right side up, and replace 

 the robes, was the first task ; now then for the freight. 

 " How about those cartridges, I wonder if the contents are 

 congealing ?" They were collected, placed in the box, and, 

 before covering up with the buffalo robe, examined. 

 Each cartridge, on removing its cork, was found to resem- 

 [Trans. vii.~\ 13 



