Increased, was augmented, became more powerful. Spell night, they spent another night at the camp ;knight, he was raised for his valor, to the rank of a knight. -Guide, leader, director, afford guidance. -Supply, quantity, what is necessary, furnish. Reluctance, unwillingness, repugnance. Forest, woods, thick trees. Night. How could these things make it night? Little streams. Are the sources of large rivers small. -Current, running stream, prevailing, swift channel. tleman ? Notch. Can you describe this place? Who is a gen -Related, gave an account, connected by blood. Mount Washington. What is its height? After whom is it named ? Party, band, scout, number of persons. Site, spot, where it stood, place, situation. Camp. Who lodged here a few days before? Excavated, dug into cavities. Grope, feel, search out by feeling in the dark. Decay, decomposition, going back to dust. Rivulet, from river, small stream, brook. Brook, running water, rivulet, to bear, to endure, to be content. -Beds, places of running, channels, couches. In several, in a number, many, part. from two to five feet in diameter, that had been rolled down the mountain and through the forests, by thousands, bearing every thing before them. Not a tree, nor the root of a tree, remained in their path. Immense piles of hemlocks and other trees, with their limbs and bark entirely bruised off, were lodged all the way on both sides, as they had been driven in among the standing and half standing trees on the banks. While the party were climbing the mountain, thirty "slides" were counted, some of which began where the soil and vegetation terminate, and growing wider as they descended, were estimated to contain more than a hundred acres. These were all on the western side of the mountains. They were composed of the whole surface of the earth, with all its growth of woods, and its loose rocks, to the depth of 15, 20, and 30 feet. And wherever the slides of the projecting mountains met, forming a vast ravine, the depth was still greater. LESSON XXIX. The same, concluded. The intelligence from the Notch, was of a more melancholy nature. In June last there was a slide at this place, not unlike the one which we are now describing. A person, who was at the spot a few days after the occurrence, thus indulges his excited feelings : "The sublime and awful grandeur of the Notch baffles all deseription. Geometry may settle the heights of the mountains, and numerical figures may record the measure, but no words can tell the emotions of the soul, as it looks upward and views the almost perpendicular precipices which line the narrow space between them; while the senses ache with terror and astonishment, as one sees himself hedged in from all the world besides. He may cast his eye forward or backward, or to either side -he can see only upward, and there the diminutive circle of his vision is cribbed and confined by the battlements of nature's cloud-capt towers,' which seem as if they wanted only the breathing of a zephyr, or the waft Diameter, distance across or through. Immense, immeasurable, unlimited, very great. Bruised, peeled, knocked. Half standing. What was their appearance ? Vegetation, growth of trees and plants, from vegetate. Terminate, cease, discontinue, limit. Estimated, judged, thought, considered. Western, from west. What are the cardinal points? Composed, made up, formed, written. Surface of the earth, external coat. -Growth, increase, enlargement, productions. Projecting, imminent, hanging out. -Intelligence, knowledge, news, information. vor upon. Excited, agitated, awakened, enlivened. Baffles, defeats, frustrates, eludes, confounds. Heights, distances from the level of the earth, or sea. Precipices, steep crags, broken rocks. -Line, limit, cover, small cord. Hedged in, shut up, confined. Diminutive, small, comparative little. -Circle, line equally distant from the centre, extent. Cribbed, caged, shut up in a narrow habitation. Battlements, walls with interstices. Cloud-capt towers, heights of mountains covered with clouds. Wafting, floating, being borne along. ing of a straw against them, to displace them, and crush the prisoner in their fall.-Just before my visit to this place, there was a tremendous avalanche, or slide, as it is there called, from the mountain, which makes the southern wall of the passage. An immense mass of earth and rocks, from the side of the mountain, was loosened from its resting place, and began to slide towards the bottom. In its course it divided into three portions, each coming down, with amazing velocity, into the road, and sweeping before it shrubs, trees and rocks, filling up the road beyond all possibility of its being recovered. With great labor, a pathway has been made over these fallen masses, which admits the passage of a carriage. The place from which this slide or slip was loosened, is directly in the rear of Mr. Willey's house; and were there not a special Providence in the fall of a sparrow, and had not the finger of that Providence traced the direction of the sliding mass, neither he, nor any soul of his family, would have ever told the tale. They heard the noise when it first began to move, and ran to the door. In terror and amazement, they beheld the mountain in motion. But what can human power effect in such an emergency ? Before they could think of retreating, or ascertain which way to escape, the danger was past. One portion of the avalanche crossed the road about ten rods only from their habitation." Such was the alarm and the danger of that unfortunate family, early in the summer. Knowing how much they must have been exposed by this repeated falling of the mountain; we were peculiarly anxious to hear what information Crawford and the gentleman accompanying him, had brought from the Notch. They found the road, though a turnpike, in such a state, that they were obliged to walk to the house of this family, a distance of six miles. All the bridges over the Ammonoosuc, five in number, those over the Saco, and those over the tributary streams of both, were gone. In the Notch, and along the deep defile below it, for a mile and a half to the Notch house, and as far as could be seen beyond it, no appearance of the road, except in one place for two or three rods, could be discovered. The steep sides of the mountains, first on one hand, then on the other, and Displace, disarrange, throw into confusion. -Slide, slip, fall, coming down of a part of the mount. Amazing, astonishing, overwhelming. Recovered, possessed again, rejoiced, made as before. -Carriage, vehicle, deportment, air. Special, particular, peculiar, appropriate, extraordi nary. Providence, interposition of God, divine aid or direc -Traced, marked out, followed by the track. Tale, occurrence, story, marvellous account. Spell heard, the speaker was distintly heard;-herd, they herd together, the whole herd ran violently down the precipice. Human power, power or energy of man. -Emergency, pressing necessity, sudden occasion. -Retreating, flying away, withdrawing, giving back. .Ascertain, find out, know for certainty. Habitation, place inhabited, tenement. Unfortunate, calamitous, afflicted, from fortune. Repeated falling. How many slides were there? Anxious, solicitous, very desirous. Information, intelligence, news. Crawford. How long was he going and returning? State, condition, division of a country, make mention. Saco. What know you of this river? -Defile, narrow passage, render impure. Appearance, external looks, visible marks, what is opposed to reality. Discovered, discerned, searched out, brought to light. -Hand, side, way, extremity of the arm. |