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 SOURCE AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.
Divinity of Mechanism, in the time long agone. And though Mr.
Hale has departed, and many others have gone, and the populous
village of silence, of shadowvs, and of human ashes, have come of
their going, still the places they vacated have been filled again by
active, earnest, living souls, and his mantle has fallen upon the
shoulders of, and is gracefully worn by, his son and successor, B. S.
Hale. In him the character and genius, as well as the name, are
still preserved. The spirit which was once so potent here is still
believed to hover around and furnish inspiration. Mr. Hale is
largely engag,ed in the manufacture of laid cord,- a most convenient means by which to bind the aims and ends, the objects and interests of mankind together. There is the clock cord, which, moving
the finger on the dial, tells off the knell of time; the cord "to hold as
'twere the mirror up to nature; " the picture-cord, to hold the shadow
of the beloved and departed substance up to view; the chalk-line,
marking the right line of duty which every man should hew square
up to; the fish-line, sugg,esting how, with gilded lure, the evil one is
said to angle for the souls -and bodies- of those he has already set
his mark upon. Formerly the method of laying cord was by hand, andl
many inventions have been devised to render the manufacture more
rapid, but the cord was laid irregular and uneven, and no permanent
success attended the invention of machinery for this purpose until
3Ir. IHale perfected the machines now in operation at his mill, by
which the cord is laid more uniform than even by hand. Thus has
the Conecrd, when its course is nearly run, accomplished its redemption, and, as a man s life is often likened to a river, it may be well for
those who can, to redeem, as the Concord has, a vagabond character,
even at the eleventh hour, and thus maintain the parallel.
The Waameset Water-Power Company having purchased (Februa,ry
7) the balance of the unimproved power at AVlhipple's Falls of E. B.
Patch, Esq.. the company was organized May 20, 1S65, as follows
HIon. Tappan WAVentworth, President; Gen. B. F. Butler, Treasurer;
D. C. G. Field, Ag-ent; capital, one hundredl and fifty thousand dollars. The company set about utilizing the power with great activity,
and the genius of a master mind was seen on every hand. A substantial brick mill has been. erected (four stories), occupied by the
United States Bunting Company and Wamesit Worsted Company;
a stone mill (two stories), by the United States Cartridge Company,
275