The Portland daily press., 1881-05-16
samuel Adams Drake in Harpcr's for June.l
North Conway.

The entrance to North Conway is, without
doubt, the most beautiful and imposing intro
duction to the White Mountains. Nature has
formed here vast autechamber, into which
you are ushered through a gateway of moul.-
tains upon the numerous inner courts, CALLER
les and closters of her most secluded retreats.
An involuntary exclamation of delighted sur
prise escapes even the mcst apsthetic travel
ler. And why should it not? This is the mo-
ment when every one feels the inadequacy of
his own conceptions.
There the mountains fa!l back before the
impetuous flood of the Saco which comes
pouring down from the summit Of the great
notch, white and painting with lhs haste of its
flight. Here the river gives rendezvous to
several of its larger affiuents-the East Branch,
the Ellis, the Swift like an army taking
the field their united streams, sweeping
grandly around the last mountain range,
emerge into the open country. Here the val
ley contracted at its extremity between tho
gentle slopes Of Kearsarge and tho abrupt de-
clivities of Moat, incloses verdant and fertile
ellipse of land, ravishing to behold, skirted on
one side by thick woods, behind which prec-
pices thousand feet high rise black and
threatening; overlooked on the other by high
terrace, along which the village stretches it
self indolently in the sun. The superb silver
gray crest of Kearsarge is seen rising in reg.
ular pyramid behind the right shoulder of its
inferior summit. Ordinarily the house perched
on its granite pinnacle is distinctly seen as
those in the village. 1t is the last in the viii
lage.
Looking up through this verdant mountain
parlr OF lictan Af
ing masses of the great SUBMITS seem scaling
the skies. Then, heavily massed on the right,
comes the Carter range, divided by the cup
shaped dip of the Carter Notch; then the trun-
Gated cone of Double Head. The mountain
in 'front.' looking up the village street, is Thorn
Mountain. on the other side of which is jack
| son, and the wav up the Ellis Valley to tho
Glen House, Gorham, and the Androscoggin.
The traveller, who is ushered upon this spen-
did scene with the rapidity Of steam, percaives
that he is at last among real mountains, and
quickly yields to the indefinabie charm which
from that moment surrounds and leads him u
willing captive.
Looking across the meadows, the eye is stop
ped by an isolated ridge, with bare overhang-
ing precipices It is thrust out into the valley
from Moat Mountain, of which it forms part,
presenting two singular and regularly arching
cliffs toward the village. The green forest be-
low contrasts vividly with the lustrous black of
these precipitouS walls which gisten brightly
in the sun where they are wet by tiny streams
flowing down. On tna nearest is very Curl
GUS resemblance to white horse in the act of
rearing, occasioned by tho intrusion of white
rock in the face of the cliff. This accident
gives it the name of White-h horse Ledge. All
marriageable ladies, madenaor widow, run out
to look at it, the consequences of the supersti-
ton, current in New England, that if, after
seeing white horse yon count a hundred, the
| first gentleman you meet will be your future
husband. Underneath this cliff charming
| little lake lies hid The next is called the
| Cathedral Ledge, from the curious rock cavity
| it contains.
But now from these masses of hard rock let
| us turn once more to tie valley, where the
| rich iutervales spread an exhaustive feast for
| the eye. If autumn be the season, the vase
like elms, the stacks of yellow corn, the golden
| pumpkins, the cloth of green and gold dam
asked with purple gorse and coppce, give the
| idea of an immense table graaning beneath
! the weight of fruit and flowers