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 TPIPBUTARIPiES.
agricultural section, and everything, including provisions, has to be
brought here, and as transportation is both difficult and expensive,
the charges at these houses are necessarily high; but the most sensible. as well as the most convenient, method of visiting these regions
is for a party to take a shelter tent, cooking apparatus, etc., and,
procuring supplies at the nearest possible point, camp out, and supply their tab)le with trout and such game as is seasonable. Pitch the
tent on a gentle, grassy slope, under the generous shade of grand old
trees, arrange a comfortable bed of healthy, fragrant hemlock boughs,
and live like a king. Uniting the duties of purveyor and cook, with a
powerful and convenient appetite and plenty of fuel, anything that is
wholesome is relished keenly. Thus with a small outlay one may
see more and enjoy more, and be independent, going whithersoever
curiosity or inclination prompts, returning at pleasure.
In this manner the interval snatched from toil and business rmay
be profitably employed and heartily enjoyed. Exploring the sylva
retreats, the cool, secluded glens, the mysterious caverns, the deep,
dark, trackless wood, scaling the slippery cliffs and towering
pinnacles, surveying the mysteries of this mysterious territory, or
exploring for others yet undiscovered, reading, refreshing and storing
the mind from this illustrated and interesting and instructive page of
the book of nature, is ample compensation for a year of toil. Mind
and body together recuperate, a new strengthl of the system and of
resolution is obtained, the heart is stouter, the courage stronger,
a renewed and increased faith displaces.doubts and misgivings; in
short, a general regeneration or reconstruction (mental and physical)
rewards, in addition to a pleasant season of rational enjoyment, those
who try the experiment.
The Merrimack River has its source in the heart of the White
Mountain region. Its head-waters are known as the east, middle,
and west branches, which, uniting in the town of Woodstock, formerly
Peeling, form at once a beautiful and important river. The east
branch is much the most considerable, having its source some fifty
miles above the confluence of the triangular tributaries, and receiving
many accessions, it arrives here a splendid river of beautiful waters,
and is the grand central figure, thljroughout its whole extent, of the
great wild valley of the upper Merrimack, which comparatively few
people know anything definite about, and fewer still have yet had
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