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.

THE X-ElPIIMACI~ RIVER;
Allenstown, on the Suncook River, was granted in 1731. In
1748, as Mr. Buntin, his son, and James Carr were at work on the
west side of the Merrimack, opposite the mouth of the Suncook,
they were set upon by Indians, and Carr, attempting to escape, was
shot; Buntin and his son were made captives, taken to Canada,
and sold, but made their escape, and returned home in about a
year.
Allenstown was not incorporated until one hundred years after it
was granted. Bear Brook is a large stream, and furnishes many
mill site3, and is one of the most famous trout brooks in this section
of the State, furnishing good fishing-ground- with its tributariessome thirty miles in extent. Suncook River divides this town from
Pembroke, and has a splendid water-power at the village, which
takes the name of the river not far from its confluence with the
Merrimack. It seems to be a well-established fact, that clearing the
lands has diminished the size of the rivers, and that those in New
Hampshire are small now compared to what they were previous to
its settlement. A proof of this may be deduced from an extract of
the address of Gov. WVentworth to the Legislature in 1746.
"After the mischief was done by the Indians at New Hopkinton, the inhabitants of Canterbury were in the utmost distress, for
a great number of the inhabitants,... then in the woods, which
occasioned an alarm in that quarter; and being apprehensive the
enemy had besieged that garrison, I ordered a detachment of Capt.
Odlin's and Capt. Hanson's horse to march out to their relief. For
want of a bridge on Suncook River, both detachments were obliged
to march more than double the distance, and as Canterbury is the
only magazine for provision on our frontiers, I hope you will think
it worth your consideration, that a bridge be built here as soon as
the weather will admit of it."
It will be seen that a century since, when the country of the
Suncook and its branches was an unbroken wilderness, cavalry
troops were forced to make a wide circuit towards its source to find
a fording-place. Now, however, there is scarcely a point in its
whole course where an athletic youth of fifteen could not ford it,
except at times of high freshets.
The mills on the Suncook, a short distance from its confluence
with the Merrimack, obtain their motive power from the former
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