44 AT THE NORTH OF BEARCAMP WATER. 
with tangled masses of wrecked forest. All the 
axes in Albany and Tam worth could not have 
cut a way through the snarl without many weeks 
of exhausting labor. So at least thought the 
lumbermen who attempted to pass the abattis 
raised by the storm. Years elapsed and the 
road became only a matter of vague tradition. 
Those who climbed the peak of Passaconaway 
or the lofty ledges of Paugus saw below them a 
panorama of ruin. Bleached bones of the great 
spruce forest lay there piled in magnificent con¬ 
fusion. Over the debris, springing from its 
midst, a dense growth of mountain ash, wild 
cherry, and hobble-bush made the chaos more 
chaotic. No trace of the lost trail was visible 
even to the most fanciful eye. 
Between Paugus and Chocorua the hurricane 
had not done its worst work. There one could 
see four miles of narrow ravine reaching from 
the Tam worth fields directly northward to a 
steep ridge connecting Paugus with Chocorua 
at their northern slopes. On the other side of 
the barrier lay the Swift River intervale. If 
that ridge were out of the way, if it could be 
easily surmounted, or if a rift could be found 
in it, the journey of nearly thirty miles from 
the southern spurs of Paugus, round through 
Conway to the northern spurs, would be reduced 
to eight or nine miles. The people living at 
