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.

ITS SOUP, CE AND ITS TRI13 UTARIES.
having been rescued from the rubbish of uncertain tradition by the
untiring, earnest, and generous efforts of the learned and thoughtful of another race of men, actuated perhaps more by a love of
knowledge than of the race whose career they chronicle!
Sometime about 1746 or 1747, Col. Atkinson's force, near the
outlet of the WIinnipesaukee, built a strong fort for the protection
of the exposed settlements on the Merrimack, and in the eastern
part of the State. Some authorities have it that the fort at
the head of Little Bay, which was generally supposed to be an
undoubted relic of Indian engineering, skill, and labor, was constructed by this force while stationed there. The Winnipesaukee
River passes through Northfield, having in it falls that afford the
best of water-power, and are used for manufacturing, there being cotton and woollen mills and shops on them used for various purposes.
The New Hampshire Conference Seminary, an extensive and
flourishing Methodist literary institution, is pleasantly located on
a slight elevation, a short distance from, and overlooking, the river,
and one eighth of a mile from Sa,nbornton Bridge. It possesses a
valuable and extensive chemical and philosophical apparatus, and its
collection of mineral specimens is large. This school is very pleasantly situated, its concomitants being a surrounding of charming
scenery, a desirable quiet, economy of living, and a profitable and
thorough system of instruction. Young gentlemen may here receive training, of a high and enduring character.
The W'innipesaukee River, in its short career from the " weirs "
in Meredith to its confluence with the Pemigewasset, just below
Webster's Falls in Franklin, is an exceedclin,gly ornamental stream,
and useful for many purposes not enumerated, but especially so in
its many mill privileges. The entire fall of this stream from the
"weirs" to Franklin is nearly two hundred and fifty feet, two hun dred of this being within four miles of its junction with the Pemnige wasset in Franklin. When it is considered that the identity of the
river proper is lost, for ten miles of its course, in the great bay
lying between its source, the lake, and the forks of the Merrimack,
it will be seen that it has no mean capacity for manufacturing pur poses, and that this power is already quite extensively employed,
with a still greater chance remaining to be some day more exten sively operated.
151'