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.

TIHE JIERPELI1IACK PIVER;
the winds, whose good spirits sigh mournfully through the firs and
spruces which grow so thick in sombre green around its base, or howl
and roar about the rocky caverns anti naked angles above the line of
vegetation, where among the inacessible cliffs the great bald eagle
has his eyrie, rearing its i'rude crown above the storm-cloud, stands
forth conspicuous from the region round, a solitary realm of desolation.
Inaccessible to even the most secret and retiring wild beasts which
Shun the haunts of man for the unbroken solitude of the wilderness,
the eagle rears its young, maintaining unimpaired his " ancient solitary reign.
Athletic men may climb Chocorua; still it requires dexterity and
daring, and a scramble to its summit involves danger and fatigue.
Reaching a shelving rock or projecting angle, and gaining by this
process a little higher footing, or seizing a slender, dwarfed, and
doubtful sapling more than liable to be uprooted, taking with it the
thin strata of soil upon its root, is no holiday task.
Leave the dogs at home; they cannot follow up, but must be passed
from hand to hand, or left behind.
The tribe of the Pequauket had their home about the base of old
Chocorua,- their hunting and fishing grounds being the unlimited
forest that stretched away to the north, and the Saco and its tributaries which meandered through it; standing, as it did, on the great
thoroughfare between the Pennacooks and the Amarisco,ggins, it was
a beacon and a guide visible from afar, even to that other trail
away to the west beyond the Pemigewasset which led to the headwaters of the Connecticut and to the St. Francis. Wild and
solemn in its annals and aspects, it may not be strange that so
fitting a locality should be prolific of legends which still cluster
around it.
On an elevated and fertile ridge called "Stevenson TIll," in the
western part of the town, and some six hundred feet above the level
of the Bearcamp, stands the residence of John M. Stevenson, Esq.,
which is visible at a great distance. iMr. Stevenson is one of those
men who contribute most liberally to the character and prosperity
of a town,- public spirited, liberal, and intelligent, carefully surveying, and securing its present wants, as well as its prospective interests. HIis parents were the first couple married by the Rev. Ir,
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