NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



167 



more than thirty years since the former were killed in great numbers, for their hides and tallow. 

 Deer are common ; sometimes they come down into the meadows and graze quietly with the 

 cattle. The American black bear is occasionally seen in the wilder parts, liit always endeav- 

 ors to avoid man. The cariboo or American reindeer has made its appearance among the 

 mountains within a few years. 



The road from the seacoast to the mountains passes along the head stream of the Saco, which 



rises among these mountains and breaks 

 through them at a place known by the 

 name of the Notch, a narrow defile, ex- 

 tending 2 miles in length between two 

 large clifis, apparently rent asunder by 

 some vast convulsion of Nature. This 

 convulsion was, in the opinion of Dr. 

 Dwight, that of a deluge. " There are 

 here," says he, "and throughout New 

 England, no decisive proofs of volcanic 

 violence, nor any strong exhibitions of 

 the power of earthquakes. Nor has his- 

 tory recorded any earthquake or volcano 

 in other countries, of sufficient efficacy 

 to produce the phenomena of this place. 

 The objects rent asunder are too great, 

 Entrance to the mUe Mountains. the ruiu is too vast and too Complete to 



have been accomplished by these agents. 

 The change appears to have been effected when the surface of the earth sunk to a great extent ; 

 when countries and continents assumed a new face, and a general commotion of the elements 

 produced the disruption of some mountains, and merged others beneath the common level of 

 desolation. Nothing less than this will account for the sundering of a long range of great rocks, 

 or rather of vast mountains, or for the existing evidences of the immense force by which the 

 rupture was effected." The entrance of the chasm is formed by two rocks standing perpen- 

 dicularly at the distance of 22 feet from each other ; one about 20 feet in height, and the other 

 about 12. Half of the space is occupied by the brook mentioned as the head stream of the 

 Saco, the other half by the road. The stream is lost and invisible beneath a mass of fragments, 

 partly blown out of the road, and partly thrown down by some great convulsion. When we 

 entered the Notch, we were struck with the wild and solemn appearance of everything before 

 us. The scale on which all the objects in view were formed, was the scale of grandeur only. 

 The rocks, rude and rugged in a manner rarely paralleled, were fashioned and piled on each 

 other by a hand, operating only in the boldest and most irregular manner. As we advanced, 

 these appearances increased rapidly. Huge masses of granite of every abrupt form, and hoary 

 with a moss which seemed the product of ages, speedily rose to a mountainous height. 



Before us the view widened far to the S. E. Behind us, it closed almost instantaneously, 

 and presented nothing to the eye but an impassable barrier of mountains. About half a mile 

 from the entrance of the chasm, we sav/ in full view the most beautiful cascade, perhaps, in the 

 world. It issued from a mountain on the right, about SOO feet above the subjacent valley, and 

 at the distance of about 2 miles from us, the stream ran over a series of rocks almost perpen- 

 dicular, with a course so little broken, as to preserve the appearance of a uniform current, and 

 yet so far disturbed as to be perfectly white. The sun shone with the clearest splendor from a 

 station in the heavens the most advantageous to our prospect, and the cascade glittered down 

 the vast steep hke a stream of burnished silver. 



At the distance of three quarters of a mile from the entrance, we passed a brook, known in 

 this region by the name of the Flume, from the strong resemblance to that object, exhibited by 

 the channel which It has worn for a considerable length in a bed of rocks, the sides being per- 

 pendicular to the bottom. This elegant piece of water we determined to examine further, and, 

 alighting from our horses, walked up the acclivity perhaps a furlong. The stream fell from a 

 height of 240 or 250 feet over three precipices, the second receding a small distance from the 

 front of the first, and the third from that of the second. Down the first and second, it fell in a 

 single current, and down the third in three, which united their streams at the bottom, in a firm 

 basin, formed by the hand of nature in the rock immediately beneath us. It is impossible for a 



