Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/162

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142

��The White and Franconia Mountains.

��called Crystal Hills. A few years later, Captain Richard Vines and others were attracted there by the reports they Jieard. They remained some time in •their vicinity, but returned without •anything more than a knowledge of their romantic scenery and the fine fa- cilities the}' afforded for game. Since then, they have been frequented by hunt- ers and men of science, and within a number of years they have become one of the most fashionable places of sum- mer resort in the United States.

��thousand feet above the plain, these mountains rise presenting every variety of mountain scenery, slopes, ravines, precipices, towering cUffs, and over- hanging summits.

To the south of the mountains and nestling among the foot hills, lies Lake Winnipiseogee — " Pleasant Water in a High Place," or "The Smile of the Great Si)irit," as the aborigines termed it, with its surface broken by hundreds of islands : one, they say, for every day of the calendar year ; and its shores the de-

���FRANCONIA MOUNTAINS, FROM THORNTON.

��The ^^'hite Mountain plateau [is ap- proached by travellers from four direc- tions, namely : from the east by the Grand Trunk, Eastern, and Ogdensburg Railroads ; from the south by Lake Win- nipiseogee and the Pemigewassett rivers ; from the south-west by way of Connec- ticut River and White Mountain Rail- road at Littleton, and from the north by the Grand Trunk at Northumberland. The approach is grand from ail sides, and the mountain combinations pictur- esque and beautiful. From five to six

��light of artists in search of the pictur- esque, as well as of the sojourner after pleasure. Its waters smile eternally pleasant, and the visitor will not find the fountain of perpetual youth of the swart old navigator a fable ; for here he will regain lost youth and strength in the contemplation of scenes as beau- tiful as poets' dreams. O ! Lake Win- nipiseogee, we recall the sails across thy bright waters with delight, and long to see thy rippling tide once more mur- muring beneath the keel of our boat.

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