PAGE. PAGE. 134 280 163 201 202 212 354 379 380 379 383 303 11 41 143 Steam and Gunpowder, relative 60 Swift river, 89 89 89 89 91 97 110 111 112 138 138 138 139 Steele, Thomas 306 158 162 282 178 131 Saunders, Sir Edmund, life of 90 Sherman, Roger, notice of 264 90 Sterling, history of 272 377 139 land purchased of the Indians, 272 272 273 177 formerly belonged to Lancaster, 272 313 178 Washacum pond, extent of 313 179 Wickapekitt hill and brook, 315 315 188 Hills and face of the country,315 316 377 378 378 378 379 private houses, number of 379 number of schools, 381 25 112 Towns, peculiar to New England, 35 46 90 W. 366 88 PAGE. PAGE: 35 108 Wyoming, destruction of 37 82 39 46 87 88 90 108 112 113 130 162 193 130 131 136 132 132 383 139 143 145 144 144 284 178 183 198 201 202 208 273 273 273 275 353 86 William Henry, fortress of 360 379 WORCESTER MAGAZINE AND Tistorical Dournal. MISOELLANEOUS, ORIGINAL. A RAMBLE AMONG THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. From the period of the first settlement of New England down to the present time, the giant heights then called the “Crystal Hills," and since denominated the White Mountains, have attracted the attention, and tempted the visits of many a curious and inquisitive traveller. They have now become the resort of the idle wanderers who pursue pleasure even on their barred summits, or of the scientific enquirers, who explore their rocky sides with unbounded industry, who consider themselves happy, and their toils rewarded, if, perchance, they discover some quaint moss or obscure lichen, invisible to common observers and unknown to former learned strollers. The crowds of visitors of the colossal piles, plunder nothing but a few perishing flowers, withered grasses, or mineral fragments : they leave to every new climber, the severe labors of ascending, the sublime views from the summits, and all the novelty and grandeur of mountain scenery. The White Mountains are indeed most interesting objects. Standing as they do in a rude and wild region, not remarkable for towering elevations, they are distinguished for their lofty height. Mount Washington, the tallest of the brothers, is said to exceed in altitude, the Alleghanies of the South, and the Green Mountains of the North, by nearly 2,500 feet. He eren rises above the more celebrated peaks of other more romantic lands: Olympus, connected as he is with so many classic recollections, is only of equal stature. Ben Nevis, the most elevated land in the island of Great Britain, and Snowdon, the king of the Welsh Hills, are lower by more than 2,000 feet. It was in the pleasant season of spring, that the writer, in com pany with an intelligent friend, set forth on the excursion which has furnished the materials for the narrative in the following pages. 'Believing that every speck of the soil of our country is interesting to its inhabitants, he is induced to suppose, that the description of the most massive of its piles of earth and stone, will be amusing to some. Our journey had been along the Eastern side of the range, and upon the banks of the rapid, but beautiful stream of the Androscoggin. This noble river, issuing from a series of solitary lakes, embosomed in the forest, and dignified with Indian names, almost as formidable as the red warriors themselves, pours westward seeking an outlet among the ridges of hills that encompass it about. At length, it does escape through an opening in the mountain barrier, and rushes through the vallies at its base, with a hurried motion, as if the favorable opportunity might be lost by any delay ; but after journeying to the South for a few miles, it is again obstructed by an opposing ridge, and wanders on to the East, in quest of a channel to convey its waters to the sea. It does not, however, take the direct course to the ocean, until it has traversed fifty miles between parallel hills, of so firm structure as to resist every attempt of their prisoner to break from its confinement.-Then it goes on with a clear and tranquil motion, scattering fertility along its banks, till it meets with other obstructions. At Rumford a precipice is stretched across the bed of the waters : They are not precipitated in one broad sheet from its edge, but tumbling from cliff to cliff are dashed into foam. The spray, tinged with all the bright colors of the rainbow, rises from their commotion and is painted by the sun-beams. The thunder of this miniature cataract is heard from a distance, and the earth, either in reality or imagination, trembles with the heavy falling. The descent is estimated at seventy feet. After dashing over the rock, the river spreads out in a broad basin, and seems resting to recover power before it rushes over a second ledge, which opposes its passage about a fourth of a mile below. It leaps over this smaller bar, and frets along another quarter of a mile, and again pluoges down a declivity, about fifteen feet in height. An island at the foot of the last rapid, covered with fair trees, rests placidly amid the uproar, as if smiling on the turmoil around it. The snowy whiteness of the stream is beautifully contrasted with the green and waving foliage. All the difficulties are not yet surmounted. The Pejypscot rocks sturdily spread themselves across the path, and |