Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1866-11-02
Miscellany.
Written for the Bellows Falls Times.
Chapter in Chorography.
BELLOWS FALLs ANn YIoIN1r,

i phLLONo FALLS AND VICINITY.
Mountains are not unfrequently styled
the spine of the earth. They ridge and
range every continent from lake to sea,
from shore to shore, and even the isles of
the ocean are braced with these towering
points. Mountains are therefore, not un-
apt to be compared with the long column
of the animal, the stay of the system
and so far as position pertains, the noun
tain is in fact the head Of the region. If
not so fertile as the wales, which receive
richness and protection from parts above,
yet they are primitive actors in the con-
densaiion of those vapors, which form the
clouds, that crown their SUBMITS, and
trailing along their sides, melt into the
rain, which is distributed over plateau
and plain. That these latter would, with
out mountains, become barren wastes, is
an evident ergotism.
Nor are tLey destitute of beauty; and
that the grandest and sublimest. They
are the prominent points in perspective !;
on them have been lavished the genius
and skill ofpoets and painters; and oceans
are sailed and continents are traversed to
ascertain the nights of mountains. 1t
would not be deemed pertinent nor taken
as other than gratuitous, to incline thus
much toward mountains, did not the feel
ing obtain here in New England, that they
are a sort of encumbrance of creation.
Autumnal woods with their 49 ever vary
ing hues sparsed over these rugged ranges,
dress them in colors of unparalleled in
! tenseness.
Whoever has had occasion to pass much
over the stage road from Bellows Falls
to Saxton's River, cannot but have taken
note of the beautiful scenery on every
side formed by the circling hills and
mountains three of which are the sub
ject of this sketch: Fail, Blueberry and
Crystal, mountains form primitive tri-
oiSic, upoh Which are DdSGu secondary
and tertiary triangles, that furnish the OBJ
server means for deriving distances and
attitudes in more extensive survey of
other mountains in Vermont and New
Hampshire. Crystal mountain is taken
for the origin of co-ordinates. Situate
ON the right bank of Saxton's River not
very remote from village of the same
name, whose top being l407 feet above
ocean level, it commands am extended view
| of objects in the surrounding space.
N. 17' E. (Wvar. 100 500, Is miles
horizontally, standing like gigantic for
tress above intervening ranges, its angle
of elevation being l. 20 32", is Ascutney
Mt, in Windsor and Wtathersfeld from
the previous data the ordinate of Ascut-
ney is found to be 2063 feet, from which
subtracting correction for curvature of
the earth, and adding hight of origin,
the summit of it above ocean level is as
certained to be 1920 feet. n. 24' E. 2I8a
miles on left bank of Saxton's River, is
Blueberry Mt, whose top stands ll5l feet
above the ocean. BY climbing one of the
dwarf pines growing here the observer is
adjusted TO view of circle OF scenery.
whose radius cannot be less than 80 miles
and the prospect is even nobler from Crys-
tai mountain. N. 37o Z. lies Charlestown.
n. ii. N. 81 E. miles, Fall Mt ranges
on the left bank of the Connecticut oppo-
site Bellows Falls, which is so completely
concealed within retreat of hills, that
standing on Crystal mount, the observer
scarce imagines SO large village SO near
Connecticut River rushes rapidly
through rocky channel 10 yards wide,
at depressed angle Of 81 Is" below a
half mile horizontal, whose perpendicular |
is "a feet, where the channel is fast wild
ened to width of SO rods. Foot of the |
falls is 1875, summit-level 239, feet above
ocean level. This state of things makes
it patent to observation, that Bellows
Falls are one of the most powerful, prac-
teal and best, advantages of water in the
wide world. Passing into the centre of
the mart made by the great intersection of
internal railroads, the observer found the
office of the BELLOWS FALLS TIMES"
to be at its base 262 feet above the sea
and the High School House $40. Now
the next step will be to stand upon Fall
Mt. Even so. Practice and prudence
prepare the path for even higher point
than l145 feet above old ocean. From
this trigonomeiric station Ascutney bears
N. Go 33' Al" W.. Monadnock. S. 80 So
So Z.
Retreated again to the Crystal origin OF
co-ordinates for convenience of reference,
the surveyors eye is allured with the pic
turesque village of Walpole bearing S.
47o Z. But further, far in the twilight of
dim distance S. 42' f., towers the Grand
Monadnoek, whose blue and slightly sum-
nit sometimes seems a signal for seamen1