LOWER GATEWAY TO CRAWFORD’S NOTCH, WHITE MOUNTAINS, NEW HAMPSHIRE.—It was through this Notch, in 1840, that Thomas J. Crawford opened a bridle-path to the summit of Mount Washington. It is now utilized by a railroad, and the rocks and cliffs along the way have been disfigured and besmeared with patent medicine advertisements. The Notch is a gigantic cleft through the mountains, with treasures of splendid scenery along the way on either side. Hills draw apart, valleys open, streams and cascades sparkle in their tortuous beds, while the skirts of the mountains are dotted with rich colors, and the meadow-lands become a fringe of emerald encompassing their irregular bases.
MINOT’S LEDGE LIGHT HOUSE, OFF COHASSET, MASSACHUSETTS.
From Mount Washington, the tourist who delights to revel among the wonderful scenes of this tumultuary and anarchistic region, where nature is in disarrangement through the operation of forces that long since have spent themselves, usually proceeds west by Thorn Hill, through Carter Notch, and thus arrives at the village of Jackson, the center of another district of great scenic interest. The town is but a handful of pretty white cottages, but it is in the quiet isolation of a mountain-engirdled vale, and the very lonesomeness of its situation gives the place an inexpressible fascination, for it is like meeting cheerful company in the valley of desolation. The largest house, commanding respect by reason of its size, and exciting reverence for its holy purposes, is a frame church, in whose belfry the pigeons swarm, undisturbed by the deep tones of the bell that summons the hamlet to worship. How mournfully it peals out the first stroke, as if awakening the town from sleep, so still is the place; but from a toll it becomes a chime, as the notes reverberate from hill to hill, until the noise is reassuring, that however lifeless things may have seemed, the church-bell has power to stir the people into mental if not physical activity. All about are mountains, Eagle, Wild-Cat, Tin, Iron and Thorn, the sides of which have been cleared of their forest growths and stone, and brought under cultivation, which add materially to the picturesque landscape of which the village is the natural center.
PROSPECT FROM THE SUMMIT OF WHITE MOUNTAINS, NEW HAMPSHIRE.—If there be grandeur in the chaotic landscape which spreads out before the startled vision of the spectator along the mountain sides, what must be the sensation inspired by the glorious panorama unfolded from the summit? It produces a feeling of complete separation from the earth, as if one were suspended in the sky and looking down upon the world below. It is the exhilaration that comes from conquering a mighty thing; the solemnity of being face to face with infinity.
