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 MEPRRIMAACK RIVER;
their icy grasp, in the time long agone when all this region was
the bottom of the sea. The crater of the old volcano is pointed
out.
"Right here in the middle of the State, overlooking one-half of
its territory and three-fourths of its people, with nothing to obstruct
the vision,'swinging round the circle,' stands Kearsarge. The view
lacks the grandeur of some others, but the world can scarcely produce one more beautiful. With a favorable atmosphere, nearly all
the mountains in this State and Vermont may be distinctly seen.
As it was, there were Ossipee, Chocorua, Carrigan, Whiteface, Lafayette, MIoosilauke, Cardigan, Ascutney, the Green Mountain range,
Monadnock, Uncanoonucs, and Wilson's Hill. Of lakes, we have
Winnipesaukee, Newfound, Sunapee, and about thirty large ponds
in the neighboring towns. Of villages, we have three or four in
Andover, two in Wilmot, as many in New London, Sutton, Warner,
and Salisbury, one in HIenniker, Webster, and Boscawen, and two or
three in Canterbury, Sanbornton, etc. The agricultural aspect is
charming. We did not know our State was so attractive. Andover
was too near to seem quite a prairie, but Wilmot, New London, and
Sutton, on the north and west, and the other towns we have named,
on the south and east, appeared nearly level; and the traveller will
wonder where the hills are that he encountered in going to Kearsarge. Each public and private building in that populous section of
our State stands out in bold relief; and the whole region, with its
*asperities softened by distance, seems a succession of beautiful and
productive farms." *
The seasons as they roll afford, in turn, peculiar charms. Winter, with its wild and threatening aspect of clouds and frosty atmosphere, so sharp and penetrating that the trees and rocks are rent with
terrific sound; under the shelter and protection of a hospitable roof,
surrounded by congenial friends, and a generous warmth, it gives a
sense of added comfort to scratch the thickly frosted panes and look
out upon the fierce, wild storm; to hear the winds roar dismally and
cheerlessly; to see the snow whirled by a frenzy of fury over all the
land; to look across the' broad and dreary waste of desolation, and
feel secure.
In summer, when the concentrated heat wilts down the robust
* J. M. Campbell.
92