The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader.

TIlE,IEPRIMA CK' RIVER;
great importance and value at the present time, but are of great
historic interest. The extent and variety of manufacturing and
mechanical business carried on by the indispensable aid of these
waters is one of the principal sources of her thrift, and a main
avenue to that position of independence and wealth she now occupies and enjoys, in spite of the adverse circumstances of high latitude and ungenerous soil. Some of her noblest sons, best known to
fame, were raised along these waters, and some have found in this
beloved valley a final earthly resting-place; others, less known to
fame, yet no less worthy men, who, although perhaps untutored,
entertaining a just appreciation of liberty and independence, marched
bravely through from Bunker Ilill to Yorktown, making a more
telling and conspicuous mark upon the enemy than on the musterroll.
It is no new thing that the lake should be the centre of attraction,
or a thoroughfare for a great number of people. It has been so for
hundreds of years, the only change being in the character and object
of those, who, in the rolling decades of time, have made their way
hither. Indians came here to collect and carry away their subsistence, provided by the beneficent hand of nature; then followed
next his relentless and exterminating pursuer, and lo! the poor Indian was faced westward to the laud of sunset, where the sun of his
race will presently set in darkness and in blood, to rise no more.
Then followed the woodman's axe, - that mighty leveller, - toil and
mechanism, enterprise, trade and pleasure-seekers; and, finally, they
came to take the very waters that bred the Indian's meat.
Winnipesaukee is an Indian name, and is derived from winne
(beautiful), nipe (water), and kees (high), and auke (a place); and
the Indian tribe that inhabited the territory adjacent to the lake took
the name, the Winnipesaukee, as well as the lake itself, - "Beautiful
water of the high place." Nothing can exceed the native simplicity
of this descriptive title given by these untutored savages, showing
an appreciative and admirable taste for the grand and beautiful,,
which may profitably be studied by some enlightened people whose
nobler natures seem to be swallowed up in the pursuit of lucre, and
who see no beauty in anything, unless it has a visible dollar in it.
Another interpretation has frequently been given to this word, which,
entirely inaccurate, is yet exquisitely beautiful, and has, no doubt,
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