The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2 | Page 9

than defences against the attacks
of outside enemies; that they have drawn from them a moral vigor of
character, a keenness and activity of intellect, and a love of country,
which has produced the most enduring and elevated patriotism. And,
indeed, we must bless God for mountains; those who live near them are
larger, better, nobler than the denizens of the plains. "Flee to the
mountains," cried the angel to Lot. Ah! there was meaning in the
command. Men stagnate upon the plain; they grow indolent, sensual,
mediocre there, and are only vivified as they seek the great alphabet of
nature, as they pulsate with her in her wondrous heart-beats. It has been
the mountain men who have ruled the world.
New Hampshire is a land of mountains. She is indeed throned among
the hills, and well deserves the title of the "Switzerland of America."
Her cloud-capped peaks, even in mid-summer, glisten with frosts and

snows of winter, and they stand watchful sentinels over the liberties of
her children. Our Alps are the White Mountains, and they hold no mean
place beside their rivals in the old world. Their lofty elevation, their
geological formation, the wild and romantic scenery in their vicinity,
and their legends of white and red men, all concur to render them
peculiarly interesting.
[Illustration: OWL'S HEAD AND MOOSILAUKE, WARREN, N.H.]
The White Mountain range is located in Coos, Grafton, and Carroll
Counties, covering an area of about two thousand square miles, or
nearly a third of the northern section of the State. Four of the largest
rivers of New England receive tributaries from its streams, and one has
its principal source in this region. The peaks cluster in two groups, the
eastern or White Mountain group proper, and the Franconia group,
separated from each other by a tableland varying from ten to twenty
miles in breadth. These mountains differ from most others in being
purely of a primitive origin. They are probably the most ancient
mountains in the world; not even the organic remains of the transition
period have ever been discovered near them; and they are essentially of
granitic formation. Underneath these coherent and indurate ledges the
most valuble ores exist, but coal and fossils are searched for in vain.
Many a change during the geological periods have these granite
mountains looked upon. They have seen fire and water successively
sweep over the surface of our globe. Devastating epochs passed,
continents sunk and rose, and mountains were piled on mountains in
the dread chaos, but these stood firm and undaunted, though scarred
and seamed by glaciers, and washed by the billows of a primeval sea,
presenting nearly the same contour that they do to-day. They are the
Methuselahs among mountains.
[Illustration: "OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS."]
The Indians generally called these mountains Agiocochook, though one
of the eastern tribes bestowed upon them the name of Waumbek
Ketmetha, which signifies White Mountains. A mythic obscurity
shadows the whole historical life of this region till the advent of the
white men. The red man held the mountains in reverence and awe.

What Olympus and Ida were to the ancient Greeks, what Ararat and
Sinai were to the Jews, what Popocatapetl and Orizaba were to the
Aztecs, so were the summits of the White Mountains to the simple
natives of this section. An ancient tradition prevailed among them that
a deluge once overspread the land and destroyed every human being
but a single powwow and his wife, who fled for safety to these elevated
regions, and thus preserved the race from extermination. Their fancy
peopled the mountains with invisible beings, who indicated their
presence and manifested their power by storms and tempests, which
they were believed to control with absolute authority. The savages,
therefore, never attempted to ascend the summits, deeming the
undertaking perilous, and success impossible. But, though thus
cherishing a superstitious respect for their utmost elevations, they still
frequented the environs and mountain defiles, and propogated many
marvelous stories of what they alleged could there be seen. Among
other things, they gave accounts of immense carbuncles seen far up the
steep and inaccessible sides, which shone in the darkness of night with
the most brilliant and dazzling splendor.
[Illustration: PEABODY RIVER AND MOUNT WASHINGTON.]
[Illustration: THE BOURNE MONUMENT.]
The first white men who visited these mountains, were Messrs. Neal,
Jocelyn, and Field, who explored the region carefully in the year 1632.
They were incited partly, no doubt, by curiosity, but more probably by
the hope of finding mineral treasure. They were disappointed in finding
gold, however, but they gave a glowing account of their adventures,
and of the extent and grandeur of the mountains, which they called
Crystal Hills. A few years later, Captain Richard Vines and others were
attracted there by the reports they heard. They remained