The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-10-13 00:00:00

ANTERESTING NARRATIVE.

[From the Rostox Sentinel.]
HANOVER (N. ILI, SEPT. 2, 1824.
Dear Slr,--I have just returned from an excursion to the White
Alourtains, and shill now spend a day of rest in this village, in
giving you some account of the ettecte produced hy the mast de-
structive fall of rain ever known in that region. It happcneden the
night of the 23th of August, which will be long remembered in
this part of the country.
I left Hanover on Saturday last, in company with two gentlemen
of my acntriintance from the city of New Yoth, and rode as far es
Haverhill. where we all spent the Sabtr.th. The road over which
wo passed was like a bed of ashes two or three inches deep; and
the country around us exhibited the usual effects of a long drought.
The abundant r: ins that tell three weeks ago over the southern
halt of New England did net reach the upper part of tile valley of
Connecticut River. On Monday morning it began to rain at
Haverhill, end Continued along mitt mate for most of the days but.'
so moderately, and at svell ioteevals, that, with the help or great.
cars and umbrellc.s.. procaalad on our journeW tiara
zampa, as far m Iteth.lshorrf, wrflea west of the NM.
tains. As we approached the vicinity of the 31nuotaine, the rain
increased till it became a storm, and compelled us to step about the
middle of the afternoon.

The morrti-c;;;;;;;Tntost of the night ; but the next morning
was clear and serene. The view trout the hill of Bethlehem was
extensive and delightful. In the eastern heizon Mount Wash ing•
ton, with the neighbourieg peaks on the North and Sonth, formed
a gr end outline far up in the blue sky. Two or three small fleecy
clouds rested on its side a little below its summit, while, from be-
hind this highest point of lo.nd in the United States east of the alis-
aissippi, the sun rolled up rejoicing in his strength and glory. We
started off toward the object of OUT journey, with spirits greatly ex-
hilarated by the beauty and grandeur of our prospect. As we heat-
ened forward with our eyes fixed on the tope of the mountains be.
fore us, little (lid we think of the scene of destruction around their
base, on which the nun was now for the first time beginning to
shine. In about half an hour we entered Breton Woods, in an un-
incorporated tract of land covered with a primitive forest, extend-
ing on our road five males to Rosebrook's Inn, and thence six
miles to Crawford's, ilia establishment begun by Rosebrook's
father, as described in the Travels of Dr. Dwight. Oa entering
this wilderness we were struck with its universal stillness. From
every leaf in its immense onotsss of foliage the rain hung in large
glinteriag cloys ; ant: the silver note of a single unseen and un-
known bird was the el,' sound that we could bear. After we had
proc,:zded a mile or two the roaring of the Amonnosuck begin to
break in upon the stillness, and soon grew so loud as to excite our
surprise. in cinsequence of coming to the river almost at right I
angles, and by a very narrow road, through trees and bushes vi,
thick, we hail no view or the water, till w7ta a quick trot we had
advanced upon the bridge too far to recede. when the sight
that opened auaince both to the right hand and to the left
drew from all of us similar exclamations of astonishment
and terror ; and we hurried over the trembling fabric as
fast as possible. After finding ourselves safe oa the ;other
side, we walked down to the brink; sad, although familiar with
mounbain scenery, we, all confeoted that see had never seen a moon.
tarn torrent before. The water was as thick with earth as it could
be, without being changed into mud. A nian living near in a log
Imo showed its how high it W 3.4 at day-break. Timagh it had
fallen six feet, he assured us that it was still ten feet anoye the or-
dinary level. To this add its ordinary depth of three cr four feet,
and here, at day-break, was a body of water twenty feet deep and
sixty ket wide, moving with the rapidity of a gale of wind, between
steep banks covered with hemlocks and pi-es, and over a bed of
large rocks, breaking its surface into billows like thaw of the
ocean. After paling a few ono:tints on this sublime Big it, we
proceeded on our way, for the most part at saute distance from the
river, till we came to the farm of Rosebrook, lying on its banks.
' We found his fields covered with water and sand, and flood-wood.
His fences and bridges were all 'wept away ; and the road was 11.9
blocked up with logs, that we had to wait for the labours of men
sod oxen before we could get to his house. Dere we were told that
the river was never before known to firing down any considerable
quantity of earth, and were pointed to bare spots on the sides of ;
the White Mountains, never seen till that morning. As our road,
for the remaining six miles, lay quite near the tiver, and crowed
many small tributary streams, we employed a min to accompany us
with an axe. We were frequently obliged to remove trees from the
road, to fill excavations, to mend and make britigni, or cotattiva.to
get our horses and waggon along separately:, After toiling in the
manner for half a day. we reached the and of our journey, 1
not however without being obliged to leave our waggon half a i
' mile behind.: In many places, in these six miles, the road I
and the whale adjacent woods, as it appeared from the marks '
on the trees, had been overflowed to the depth of ten feet.
In one place the river, in consequence of some obstruction
at a remarkable fall, hail been twenty feet higher than it wag
when we posed. We stopped to view the fell, which lie.
Dwight calls " beautiful." Ile says of it. " The descent is from
fifty to sixty feet, cut C.rough a mass of stratified granite; time
side; of which appear as if they had been laid by a mason in a vas
rietv of fantastical forma; betraying, however, by their rude and
wild aspect, the masterly hand of Nature." This description is suf-
ficiently correct ; but the beauty of the fall was now lost in its subli. ;
mitt' . You have only to imagine the whole body of the Amonoo.
suck, as it appeared at the bridge which we crossed, now corn.
pressed to half of its wid;h, and sent downward at an angle of 20 to
25 degrees, between perpendicular walls of stone. On our arrival
at Crawford's, the eppearance of his farm as like that of Rose.
I brook, only mach worse. Some of his sheep and cattle were lost ;
I and eight hundred bushels of oats were destroyed. Here we found
I fire gentlemen, who gave us an interesting account of thelenn-
I successful attempt to ascend Mount Washington the preceding day.
They went to the "Camp" at the foot of the mountain on Sabbath
evening, and lodged there with the intention of elimbiag tie sum-
tnit the next morning. But in the morning the mountains were
enveloped in thick clouds; the rain began to fall, and increased till
, afternoon, when it came down in torrents. At live o'clock they I
I prorated to spend another real. ". at the camp, aril lc: their guide ,
return home for a fresh supply of provisions for the test day. Bdt
the impossibility of keeping a fire where every thing was so itet.
anal at length the advice of their guide, made them all conchale to
return, though with great reluctance. No dine was now to be low,
for they had seven miles to travellmfoot,; and six; of them by a
rugged path through a gloomy forest. They can as fast as their
circumstances would permit; but the dark evergreens around
them, and the black clouds above, mode it bight before they had
gone half of the way. The rain poured down faster every moment;
and the little streams, which they had stepped across the evening
before, must now be crossed by wailing, or by cutting down trees
for bridges, to which they were obliged to ciing fur life.
In this way they reached the bridge over the Aitionoosuck, near
Crawford's, just in time to parse it before it was carried down the
current. Oti Wednesday, the weather being clear and beautiful,
and the waters having subsided, six gentlemen, with a guide, went
to Mount aVashington, and one accompanied Sir. Crawtott: to:he ;
'• Notch," from which nothing had been heard. We met again at
evening, and related to each other what we had seen. The party I
who went to the mounnain ware five hours reaching the site of the '
camp, instead of three, the usual time. The path for neirly one.
third of the distance was so much excavated, or Covered with miry ,
sand, or entirely blocked up with flood-wood, that they were ob. I
ligea to grope their way though thickets almost impenetrable, I
where one generation of trees after another had risen and fallen, 1
and were now lying across each other in every direction, and in va-
rious stages of decay. The camp itself had been wholly swept away,
and the bed of the rivulet, by which it had stood, was now more
than tea rods wide, and with banks from ten to fifteen feet high.
Four or five other brooks were passel, a hose beds were enlarged,
some of then to twice the extent °ldris. In .everal the water was
now only. three or four feet wide, while time bed, of ten, fifteen, or
twenty rods in width, was covered four miles with stones from two t
to five feet in diameter, that had been rolled down the mountains and I
through the forest by thotmanda, bearing every thing before them. ;
Not a tree, nor the root of a tree, remained in their loath. launense
piles of hemlocks and other tiers, with their limbs and bark entirely
bruised off; were lodged all time way on both sides, as they had been
driven in among the standing aid half-standing trees on the
banks: %allay the party were climbing the mountain, thirty I
" slides" were counted, some of which began near the line where I
the soil and vegetation terminate, and, growing wider as they
descended, were erimated to contain mete titan 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
wools, and its loose rocks, to the depth of la, 20, and 30 feet ; and I
wherever the slides of two projecting mountains met, forming a vast
mavine. the depth was still greater.
Such was the report which the party from the mountains pave.
The intelligence which Mr. Crawford, and the gentleman accom-
panying him, brought from the Notch, was of a more melancholy
nature. The road, though a turnpike, was in such a mate, that
they were obliged to walk to tine Notch House, lately kept by Mr.
%Villey, a distance of six miles. All ihe bridges over the Amo.
noosuck, five in number, those over the Saco, and those over the tri-
butary streams of both, are gone. in some places the road was exca-
vated to the depth of 15 or 2U feet; and in others it was covered
with earth, and rocks, and trees, to as great ft height. In the
Notch, and along the deep defile below it, for a mile and a half to
the Notch House, and as Mr as could be seen beyond it, no ap.
pearance of the road, except in one place for two or three roils,
could be discovered. The steep sides of the mountains, firm on
one band, then on the other, anti then on both, had alba down 1
into this narrow passage, and formed a continual mesa from one end
to the other, so that a turnpike will probably not be made through
it again very soon, Weyer. The Notch House was found uninjured;
though the barn adjoining it by a stied was crushed ; and under its
ruins were two dead horse*. The house was entirely deserted; the
beds were tumbled, their covering was turned down ; and near them
upon the chairs and on the floor lay the wearing apparel of the
several members of the family ; while the money and papers of Mr.
Willey were lying in his open bar. From these circumstances it
'teemed almost certain that the whole family were destroyed ; anti
it soon became quite an, by the arrival of a brother of Mr. Craw-
ford from his father's, six miles tonne' east. From him we learnt that
the valley of the Sato, for miles, presented an uninterrupted scene of
desolation. The twoCrawfords were thenearest neighbours of Willey.
Two days had now elapsed ;ince the storm, and nothing had been
; heard of his family in either direction. There was no longer any
room to doubt that they had been alarmed by the noise of the de-

ramekin around them. had sprung from their bed's, lod fled naked
from The house, and, in the utter darkness, had been molt overtakelt
by the falling mountains and rushing torrents. The fought. ttrbisil
Is said to be amiable and respectable, consisted of nine
Willey and his wife And live young children of theirs, wig a 6iAtl
mantand Boy. After the fall of a single sale last June. they were •
mere ready to take the alarm, though they did not oonaidet their O.
tendon dangerous, as none had ever been known to fall there pre-
vious to this. Whether more rash fell now than had ever been
known to fall before.in the aunt length of time, at leaet since the.
sides of the mountain. were novtred with se heavy ...worth of
woods, or whether the slides were fwodnead by the fallings( such a
quantity of rain so suddenly, after the earth had been renderer
light and loose by the tong drought, I tun utterly unable to say.
All I know Is, that at the cloneof•rrairty- day, the ttlettas seemed
all to come tngether over the Ni'hiteihountafits, and et midnight
discharge their contents it mite ilt s teriible burst affair), which
Fnduced the 'filets that have now been described. Why they?
affect ercre produced now, dr ctmecerbEtbre, Is knobs only to Him,
who ran reed heavens whet he will, and eagle ddwn, and cause
ME the flow down et bit presannt. '
, . Yogis, atc. CAnneitirticor.
lit NOV Eli. SEPT. 4.
•
P-S:—We have just heard that the bodies of the three atiulv-,of
Mr. Willey's family hat7o be.-n dug up. dreadfully mangled, from
amid earth and rocks, about fifty rods from the house. We have
also heard that many of the isr;dges and mills on the striatus run-
fling south from the White Alountains. and forraing the several
branchrs of the Alerrimack, have been swept away, aid that Mut; •
other damage has been done.