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 AN-D ITS TRIBUTARIES.
dissevered portion lying on the north side or left bank of the Merrimack took the name of Amesbury.
The Pow-Wow River, a considerable tributary of the MIerrimack,
takes its rise in Kingston, N. H., and effects a junction with the
Merrimack in this town, and affords one of the best manufacturing
privileges to be found in the country. Like most other New England
streams, the first use made of this was for saw and grain mills, and
its usefulness was limited to these and kindred purposes. Nail and
iron works followed.
In the year 1812 the manufacture of cloth was begun, and the
first contract for clothing our troops in the war which began the
same year was filled by this mill. From that time to the present,
manufacturing has been steadily increasing, and it has reached a
magnitude not probably dreamed of by its original projectors.
Previous to the year 1854 there were two corporations, the Salisbury MAlills and the Amesbury Flannel Mills. About that time these
were consolidated under the name of the Salisbury MAanufacturingr
Company. In 1856, the present company purchased all the property and effects of this concern, and was incorporated by the name
of the Salisbury Mills Company, with a capital of seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, which has since been increased to one
million dollars.
This company has, at the present time, ten large woollen mills,
containing seventy-five sets of machinery, and two thousand cotton
spindle. These mills are located on the Pow-WAVow, and obtain their
motive-power from a total aggregate fall of seventy-five feet, which
is wholly included within a distance of seventy rods. This company
own the entire privilege of this river, from its source in New Ihampshire to its confluence with the Merrimack, which occurs a half a
mile below the mills, an,l flows more than three thousand acres, affording a never-failing reservoir. The water is used over five different times, exclusive of the times which it is used in running three
saw and three grain mills, which the company own and operate.
Almost every variety and description of woollen fabrics are manufactured here, and the enormous' quantity of more than seven and a
half miles in length of manufactured goods is produced daily,- a
business amounting to ove'r three millions of dollars per annum.
There are five feet of t(ide-water, affordling, an easy, cheap, and con
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