Carolina. The summit of Mount Washington is occupied as a meteorological station by the United States Government. There is also a summer hotel known as Tip-top or Summit House. On the east side of the mountain there is a carriage road, and on the west a railroad, either of which is very helpful to the tourist. The grade of this railroad is, in some places, one foot in three, and the track is of three rails, the center like a cog-wheel. The cars are swung so as to be always horizontal. Before these roads were built, the attempt to reach the summit was attended with considerable peril. In September, 1855, a lady who was accompanied by her uncle and cousin, died of fatigue and cold, and a pile of stones marks the place where her friends kept watch over her body through the long and sad night. There is also a spot pointed out where portions of a skeleton and some clothing were found in July, 1857. These were afterwards identified as the remains of a gentleman from Delaware. Dr. Benjamin Hall,

of Boston, narrowly escaped with his life, after passing two nights on the mountain, lost in an October storm.

MRS. GOLDUST: I cannot see why people should expose themselves to such risks. For my part, grand as mountains are, I like the lesser hills better. MR. MERRIMAN:

THE PRESIDENT: Here is a view of a portion of Crawford's Notch. To reach this place it may be well to go to the Crawford House, one of the earliest hostelries in the White Mountains, and which can be reached by railroad from North Conway. As cars of observation are connected with the trains running through this region, it is pleasant to avail oneself of this means of travel whenever opportunity offers. The Notch is a mountain gorge, with walls 2,000 feet high, approaching in one particular spot to within twenty-two feet of one another. The brook Saco run through it, and the railroad also finds room. The Silver Cascade, of which our picture gives a view, is said to be the finest waterfall in the White Mountains. The fall is four hundred feet, almost perpendicular. There are numerous other cataracts, cascades, and objects of romantic interest which it would weary you if I were to try and describe. But our pictures speak for themselves in this respect.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS-CONTINUED.

OLONEL WARLIKE: Did I understand you as saying on a former evening, that the White Mountains formed a portion of the great Appalachian chain?

THE PRESIDENT: No doubt. Speaking in a general way they do, as when classifying the leading mountain divisions of the continent; but in subdividing these great ranges it is usual to put the White Mountains into a group with an older series called the Atlantic system, lying east of the Appalachians proper, and including the Maine mountains.

MRS. WARLIKE: What extent of territory is covered by the White Mountains? THE PRESIDEN: About thirty miles from north to south, and 45 miles from east to west, and within this region there are over 200 distinct peaks, and innumerable mountain gorges, streams and rivulets.

GILBERT: I suppose the Indians had a name for these mountains?

66

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I find that they were called by the Indians Agiocochook, signifying Mountains of the Snowy Forehead" and Home of the Great Spirit. It is somewhat curious that while a great many of the streams and lakes in New Hampshire retain their Indian names, it is very rarely that we find a mountain peak so honored. In this region the principal mountains are named after personages famous in our own history-Washington, Franklin, Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, etc.

I should say that the mountains are divided into two clusters, the western, called the Franconia Mountains, and the eastern, or White Mountains proper. Between these groups is a table-land or plateau of irregular shape, several miles. in width.

I have here two very fine views, both from the Franconia group. One is of the Eagle Cliff Mountains, as seen from the Franconia Notch, looking northward. There is a mingled softness and grandeur about this and the other view which

The White Mountains-Continued.

159

is especially attractive. The Franconia Notch is a beautiful mountain pass, five miles long and half a mile wide. The sides are bold and often precipitous, and crowned with forests. The Pemigewasset River flows through this defile. There is a charming lake called Echo Lake near the north end, which ought to be visited. The echo from the center of the lake is wonderfully distinct, and of course there is the usual Indian superstition connected with it, that the echo is the voice of the Great Spirit. The second view is of the Cannon or Profile Mountain as seen from the Eagle Cliff Mountain, looking down the Notch. From some points of view the top of this mountain has some resemblance to a mounted cannon. The view from the summit is, of course, inexpressibly grand and very extensive. From another point of view the profile of an old man's face is distinctly traceable, and from a third, still another profile-that of an old woman. It was this mountain that suggested to Hawthorne his story in "Twice Told Tales" of "The Great Stone Face." Here we also find another beautiful lake called "Profile Lake."

LILIAN: Hawthorne begins his story, I think, by saying that the valley overlooked by this mountain contains many thousand inhabitants.

THE PRESIDENT: That is taking a kind of poetic license with these New Hampshire valleys, although some of them are quite populous.

ALBERT: I have read Hawthorne's little story, and I confess I do not see the point of it. It is of a simple-minded, virtuous man, growing up among his neighbors, and all his life looking for the fulfillment of an old legend that somebody will come along whose face shall resemble the profile of the "old man of the mountain," and that that person, whoever he might be, should be the greatest and noblest personage of his time. of his time. The people of the valley at length discovered that this simple-minded neighbor of theirs was the man.

THE PRESIDENT: I suppose that the moral lies in the fact that the man himself never suspected the likeness nor dreamed that he was either great or noble. AUNT HARRIET : True nobility of character is, I suppose, inconsistent with what is termed self-consciousness or egotism.

THE PRESIDENT: The instant we begin to imagine we are great we betray our littleness.

DR. PAULUS: "Professing themselves to be wise they became fools."

AUNT HARRIET: Perhaps there is another point in the story. From habitual