USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, New Hampshire > Part 3
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ODIFIED DRIFT .- The southeastern part of the White Mountain district is drained by the Saco, which has its farthest sources in Saco pond and Mt Washington river. The watershed at the Crawford house, which divides this from the Lower Ammonoosue river, is formed by a deposit of very coarse modified drift, which was swept down into this mountain-pass in the Champlain period. Its height is 1,000 feet above the sea ; and Saco pond, which fills a depression in this deposit, is 20 feet lower. The small stream which issues from this pond passes through the White Mountain Notch, falling 600 feet in the first three miles, and nearly as much more in the next nine miles. Along this distance it flows between lofty mountains, whose sides are often precipitous walls of rock. A fine view of this part of its valley is afforded from the top of Mt Willard. Far above rise the rugged heights of Webster and Willey, almost vertical in their upper part, but below bending in graceful, regular curves, composed of materials which have fallen from each side, and form an apparently smoothed hollow for highway and river. The principal superficial deposits along this steep portion of the river are such rocky debris as has crumbled from the mountains, or the equally coarse unstratified till. In the bed of the stream these mate- rials have become water-worn, but only limited deposits of gravel and sand are found.
At the west line of Bartlett the Saco is 745 feet above the sea. In the
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GEOLOGY CONTINUED. MODIFIED DRIFT, ETC.
next eight miles, to the mouth of Ellis river, it descends about 30 feet to the mile, flowing over modified drift. This consists of gravel and sand, and above Rocky Branch these occupy an area one fourth to one half a mile wide, which lies mostly on the south side of the river, forming a nearly continuous interval 10 to 15 feet in height, which slopes with the stream, and irregular terraces which reach 25 feet higher.
From Glen Station in Bartlett to Conway Corner, the alluvial area averages fully a mile in width, lying in nearly equal amount on each side of the river. The greater portion of this is interval from 10 to 20 feet in height, which is often seen to be composed of coarse gravel overlaid by fine silt, as on Andros- coggin river. The flood-plain of the Champlain period is shown in the higher terraces of sand or fine gravel, 40 to 60 feet above the river, which are nearly continuous on both sides. North Conway is built on a wide portion of the east terrace. The form of these terraces, with their surfaces level, but usually narrow and bounded by steep escarpments, and their correspondence in height on opposite sides of the valley, make it easy to understand that a wide plain once reached across the intervening area.
Along Seavey's falls, the Saco is bordered on both sides by slopes of till and ledge. The modified drift of the highest terrace, however, is continuous between Pine and Rattlesnake hills, and thence extends two miles to the east on the north side of the river; on the south it reaches from Conway Centre to the northeast side of Walker's pond, and thence is nearly continuous, though narrow, eastward to Maine line. East from the outlet of Walker's pond, the interval between this terrace and the river on the south is not wide, but on the north it extends from one half to one mile from the river, rising with a gentle slope to a height about 25 feet above it. On this side the most elevated part of the alluvial area, as at Conway street, is only a few feet above the reach of high water. The ancient flood-plain, from 40 to 50 feet above the present river (as shown by its terrace on the south), may have extended over this whole area. It would then appear that the river here began its excavation on the north side, and has been gradually cutting its channel deeper as it has slowly moved across this area southward. Remnants of the former high flood-plain are thus found at a nearly constant height above the river for fourteen miles, sloping in this distance more than 100 feet. The height of Saco river at the state line is about 400 feet above the sea.
From the modified drift of Pine river, Ossipee lake, and Saco river, we learn the history of this part of New Hampshire in the Champlain period. After the ice-sheet had retreated from the coast, it seems for a long time to have still covered the Ossipee lake basin and the valley of Pine river and Balch ponds. The kames of this valley were deposited during this time in the channel of a glacial river, which carried forward its finer gravel and sand to form the plains that extend southeast from Balch pond. The coarse
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
material and irregular surface of nearly all the modified drift along the upper part of Pine river indicate that masses of ice still remained at the time of its deposition.
After this the ice-sheet disappeared from the broad, low basin of Ossipee lake, and again, for a long time, had its terminal front at the border of the low area from which it had retreated. Its moraines fill the west and higher side of the narrow valley between Madison and Conway. These gradually change, as we come to the centre of the valley, to ordinary water-kames. This appears to have been the first outlet from the melting of the ice-sheet over the Saco valley and the southeast side of the White Mountains; and the material brought down was spread out to form the extensive sand-and-gravel plains about Ossipee and Silver lakes. The comparatively small amount of levelly stratified drift associated with the kames in Madison and Conway makes it probable that the present outlet by Saco river was opened before the ice here had wholly disappeared.
The lowest points of the watershed around Winnipiseogee lake are: - Summit on railroad between Meredith village and Pemigewasset valley at Ashland, 166 feet (ten feet below the natural surface); at two and a half miles north from Meredith village, about 140 ; at same distance north from Centre Harbor, about 100, these points being the lowest between this and Squam lake ; the Varney pass, between Moultonborough and the Bear Camp valley, about 150 ; summit on railroad between Wolfeborough and Salmon Falls valley, 164; between Smith's pond and Cook's pond, about 200; summit on railroad between Alton bay and Cocheco valley, 72; and near Lily pond in Gilford, between the lake and Long bay, about 75 feet. The two last of these places show by their modified drift that they were formerly outlets of the lake.
These lake basins lie upon the south side of the White Mountains, from which source we might expect a greater depth of ice to move southward and cover this area near the close of the glacial period than would at that time remain in other parts of the state to the east and west. The ice-sheet proba- bly lay over Squam and Winnipiseogee lakes in a broad, mountain-like ridge till after it was almost wholly melted away over the lowlands of York county, Maine, in the basin of Ossipee lake, and for some distance along the Bear Camp valley. The departure of the ice-sheet along the Merrimack and l'emigewasset valley appears also to have proceeded more rapidly than upon the higher land on its east side, so that over Winnipiseogee and Squam lakes the drainage from the melting ice was outward both to the east and west.
The noticeable feature in the surface geology of these lakes is the absence of modified drift. Their shores are chiefly of coarse glacial drift or till with occasional ledges. The basin of Ossipee lake, on the contrary, is characterized by very extensive, and probably thick, deposits of modified drift, presenting a remarkable contrast. These deposits are also abundant in the Pemigewasset
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GEOLOGY CONTINUED. MODIFIED DRIFT, ETC.
valley on the west. Their conspicuous absence from these intervening basins needs to be accounted for, and this seems to be due to different rates of progress in the departure of the ice. The later continuance of the ice-sheet over these lakes turned all the drainage from the south side of the White Mountains into the Ossipee basin and Pemigewasset valley, and even caused the modified drift which was contained in this part of the ice to be mostly carried away.
At the head of Moultonborough bay we find swampy land along its east shore for a mile, and, farther east, an extensive deposit of sand, undulat- ing and partly covered with pines, reaching a mile from the lake, with its highest portions 40 feet above it.
The next modified drift is four miles to the southeast of Melvin village. Melvin river here brought down in the Champlain period a small plain of gravel and sand, which, since that time, has been partly excavated by the stream and partly undermined and carried away by the lake, so that it forms a terrace 20 feet high. Another tributary to the lake, a mile farther southeast, is bordered by terraces of similar height near its mouth.
On the northeast side of Twenty-mile bay, two miles south from Melvin village, a bold shore of coarse till, with many large bowlders, is bordered by an old beach, about 300 feet long and 100 wide, which slopes from the water's edge to ten or twelve feet above high water. It is composed of fine stratified sand, which is clayey below a foot or two of the surface.
Kames. - The oldest of our deposits of modified drift are long ridges, or intermixed short ridges and mounds, composed of very coarse water-worn gravel, or of alternate layers of gravel and sand irregularly bedded, a section of which shows an arched or anticlinal stratification. Wherever the ordinary fine alluvium also occurs, it overlies, or in part covers, these deposits. An interesting series of kames extends from Saco river to Silver lake, and from Ossipee lake southeasterly along Pine river, and by Pine river and Balch ponds into Maine. About three miles south of Melvin village there is a kame extending two thirds of a mile from northwest to southeast along the top of a hill about 100 feet above the lake. It does not form a definite ridge, and could hardly be distinguished from the till by its contour. Its materials are coarse and fine gravel and sand interstratified. Bowlders are enclosed in many portions, but a well 30 feet deep encountered no bowlders, being all the way through sand or fine gravel. Nineteen-mile bay and brook are a half-mile farther south. Here the road passes over the alluvium brought down by this brook, which, like that at the head of Twenty-mile bay, is only three or four feet above the lake. Nineteen-mile brook is bordered by considerable widths of low alluvium for two miles above its mouth to where it is crossed by the road, a mile and a half south, for Centre Tuftonborough.
From the brook to this village, and for a half-mile farther north, kame-like
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
deposits of limited amount are seen here and there, at heights of 100 to 200 feet above the lake. East from this road, interesting kames extend more than a mile along the northeast side of Nineteen-mile brook. These cover a width of a fourth of a mile, consisting of successive small plains from half an acre to two or three acres in extent, usually surrounded by hollows, and rising one after another from 30 or 50 to 100 feet above the stream, or fully 150 feet above the lake. These small level-topped deposits consist of sand and water- worn gravel, with the largest pebbles about one foot in diameter. Bowlders are occasionally but not frequently enclosed. These kames begin about two miles southeast from that described between Twenty-mile and Nineteen-mile bays. These, and the similar deposits which occasionally appear about Centre Tuftonborough, probably had a common date and cause. Advancing to the southeast we leave the modified drift, but cross a watershed which is probably lower than the highest of these kames, and thence follow Hersey brook to Lake Wentworth. A sandy plain, about 50 feet above the pond, or 75 feet above the lake, is found on the west side of this brook near its mouth, covering about half a mile square. The shores of this pond, like those of the lake, are almost entirely till or ledge.
Upper Beech pond, covering perhaps 150 acres, and about 300 feet above Winnipiseogee, is situated a mile and a half northeast from the kames last described. Its outlet is to Ossipee lake by Beech river, but only a very slight barrier at its southwest side prevents its flowing to Winnipiseogee lake by Nineteen-mile brook. This barrier consists of a kame, which in its northwest portion is a nearly level plain three or four aeres in extent, but for several hundred feet southeast from this it is narrowed to a mere ridge. The gravel of the small plain is but slightly water-worn, the rock fragments being from a foot to a foot and a half in size. The ridge consists of sand or fine gravel, in which fragments larger than six inches are uncommon.
This whole deposit is bounded by steep slopes, both against the pond and on the opposite side. The height of the plain is 20 to 30 feet above the pond, while its southwest slope falls abruptly to 20 or 30 feet below it. Large springs, fed from the pond, issue at the bottom of this bank. Except at this point and its outlet, this pond is surrounded by high hills; no other kame-like deposits occur on its shores or in the steeply sloping valley that descends towards the southwest from this barrier.
The shores of the lake through Wolfeborough have no modified drift worthy of note.
On the east side of Squam lake, in Moultonborough, are frequent deposits of clay. This was used for brick-making sixty years ago. The side of Red hill, which rises near at hand on the east, is said to have in many places (to a height 300 feet above the lake) a stratum of elay underlying one to three feet of coarse till. On the north side of this lake the clay in the southwest
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corner of Sandwich, which was extensively worked for briek-making sixty years ago, appears to belong in the same class.
At Wolfeborough, the hillside of till southeast from the "Bridge " has an underlying stratum of clay. Wells at the Glendon house, about twenty-five feet above the lake, show some six feet of till, then an equal depth of clay with till beneath. Near the Pavilion, about fifty feet above the lake, a well showed eight feet of coarse till, then two feet of ferruginous earth, then twelve feet of clay free from stones, and underlaid by the compact, stony, lower till. About thirty rods southeast from the last, a well passed through eight feet of till, and then through four feet of clay underlaid by till. About the same distance farther southeast a well found this layer of clay only one foot thick, occurring ten feet below the surface. The last two places are only a few feet higher than that near the Pavilion. Nearly all that part of the village which lies southeast from the "Bridge " is built on a thick mass of till, which encloses a continuous stratum of clay. Northeast from the Pavilion a slope descends in about twenty-five rods to a small pond, which is tributary to the lake and of the same height. This slope has a surface of till with numerous bowlders; but excavations for brick-making show that the clay beneath has a thickness of fully twenty feet, with its bottom resting on till only a few feet above the lake. The till on the surface is from one to eight feet deep. This clay is free from pebbles, and is finely laminated in its lower portion, while its upper part sometimes crumbles into small angular pieces. No deposits of clay appear to occur in the thinner till which covers the hillside northwest from the " Bridge."
At the northwest ends of Rattlesnake and Davis islands, deposits of clay are found similar to that of Clay point, and, in former times, it was excavated at both these places for brick-making.
The series of kames in Tuftonborough and Wolfeborough was probably formed at nearly the same time by a glacial river from the northwest, after the ice had disappeared from the south end of the lake, and from the basin of Lake Wentworth.
Dunes. - Wind-blown banks of sand, or dunes, apparently isolated on the hillsides, are occasionally found along the east side of Connecticut and Merrimack valleys and southeast of Ossipee lake, at heights varying from the level of the highest terrace or plain to 200 feet above it. These patches of sand are very conspicuous because they are often destitute of vegetation, being blown in drifts by the wind. They vary in size, the longest sometimes covering an acre or more, with their thickest portions from 10 to 15 feet in depth. These dunes appear to have been swept up from the broad plains of the Champlain period, before forests had fully covered the land, by the strong northwest winds, which we may suppose prevailed then the same as now. Since the clearing away of the forest, the upper portion of these trains of sand has
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
sometimes been carried several hundred feet onward, and from thirty to fifty feet higher. The excavation of the old drifts has been six or seven feet in depth, as shown by great stumps, beneath which the sand has been swept away. These dunes are ridged, channeled, and heaped up by the wind in the same manner as the more extensive dunes of a seacoast.
Lake District Elevations. - The Ossipee mountains have an area in oval form of from six by ten miles, and are situated in the adjoining corners of Ossipee, Tamworth, Moultonborough, and Tuftonborough. The Bear Camp river flows along the northern side. Two streams flowing east have eut very large valleys out of the eastern side, the largest, Lovell's (Lovewell's) river; the smaller, a tributary of Pine river heading in Dan Hole pond. The highest Ossipee mountain has an altitude of about 2,000 feet. Red hill was named in 1797 Mt Wentworth by Dr Dwight, in honor of Gov. John Wentworth. Its length is three miles, with a breadth of one half that distance. It lies in Moultonborough and Sandwich. Green mountain (Effingham) is about four miles long and shaped much like Red hill. The sandy plains of Ossipee, Freedom, and Madison have an elevation of from four hundred to five hundred and fifty feet. Between Ossipee and Passaconaway mountains in Tamworth and Sandwich, the average elevation is from five hundred and fifty to six hundred and fifty feet. The highest points in Tamworth are Chatman's, Great, and McDaniel's hills. The soil here is much better than in the sandy plains eastward, and the extensive meadows along the Bear Camp river are profitable to their owners, as well as gratifying to the eyes of the artistic visitors. Bear Camp river has its source in several streams flowing from the south side of the Sandwich and Albany mountains. It passes through Tamworth in an easterly direction, and receives a considerable stream coming from Albany, in Ossipee, and falls into Ossipee lake on its western border.
Conway Boulders. - Prof. E. J. Houston described a large bowlder in North Conway in much detail in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, in 1871. He calls it the Pequawket bowlder. " It is of coarse granite, with a preponderance of feldspar, considerable quartz, and very little mica. The general form is that of a paralleloped, one of whose longer sides is partly buried. The length is 52 feet 6 inches; greatest breadth, 21 feet; greatest height, 33 feet 2 inches ; and it is estimated to weigh 2,300 tons. Several large fragments surround the mass, seemingly once connected with it. One is 31 feet 7 inches long, 15 feet 3 inches broad, and 11 feet 7 inches high. Several spruces and beeches conceal the bowlder from the road. A few hundred feet below the Pequawket is another mass 31 by 18 by 21 feet."
The Washington Boulder is about a mile northeast from Conway Centre, near Pine hill. Its dimensions may be expressed by about 30 feet wide, 40 long, and 25 high. It is one of the notable objects of Conway, and is composed of the granite for which the town is famous.
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Bartlett Bowlder. - This is not so noted for size, as position. It has the typical shape of glaciated stones, is 15 feet long, 12 feet wide, 10 feet high, and rests upon four smaller blocks. The entire assemblage rests on stratified sand ; hence it was moved to its present position at the time of the melting of the ice.
Ordination Rock. - This is in Tamworth, west of the centre village, and has a flat top reached by artificial steps, and is surmounted by a monument. It is 30 feet long, 20 feet wide, 15 high, and composed of Conway granite. It came from the north or northeast. This rock takes its name from the fact that on September 12, 1792, Rev. Samuel Hidden was, on its top, ordained pastor of the First Church of Tamworth. [See Tamworth history elsewhere in this volume.]
Madison Bowlder. - The largest of these glacial " travelers " on this continent is perhaps the one situated in the northwest part of Madison, not far from the White Ledge quarries. Its length is 75 feet, height from the surface of the ground 38 feet, and it has six sides, respectively 32, 22, 75, 31, 14, and 403 feet, making a circumference of 2143 feet. The existence of this roek is known to comparatively few; it is rarely visited, and was first examined and measured by B. F. Clark and C. W. Wilder about 1887. It is granite of a porphyritic texture, and closely resembles the rock forming the summit of Mt Willard. The lower ends are scow-shaped, and the mass rests upon a bed of pieces of rock of the same material. A few bowlders are near by, one or two of them being as large or larger than Ordination Rock. One end and one side have evidently been polished in its journey hither.
White Mountain Granites. - These are the Conway, Albany, Chocorua, and sienite groups. Certain portions of these mountains can be quarried and made a marketable commodity. Other parts are unsuitable for building purposes, because they easily disintegrate. This disintegration is caused by the presence of innumerable pores in the feldspar which admit water charged with carbonic acid. The Conway granite mountains are not of this character. The other varieties also afford grades of building-stone which has only to be utilized to be appreciated. The finer grained varieties of Conway marble near the Portland and Ogdensburgh railroad are very durable.
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.
MINERALS.
Copper - Arsenic - Galenite and Silver - Bornite - Sphalerite - Pyrite - Chalcopyrite - Arsenopyrite - Fluorite - Hematite - Magnetite - Tin - Limonite - Quartz - Beryl - Epidote - Mica - Feldspar - Tourmaline - Chiastolite - Fibrolite - Apatite - Scorodite - Calcite - Novaculite -Gold.
OPPER. - On Eastman's hill, Jackson, native copper was found while blasting for tin ore, and in connection with other copper ores.
Arsenic. - Native arsenic is a rare mineral in the United States, and almost its only localities are in New Hampshire. It has been seen at the tin mine in Jackson. It occurs in thin layers in a dark-blue miea sehist, associated with iron and arsenieal pyrites.
Galenite. - Galena is common in New Hampshire. It oceurs in small beds and veins, and though it has never been found in such large quantities as to make it a profitable lead ore, yet the uniform presence in it of varying amounts of silver has always made it a mineral of great interest, and numerous attempts have been made to mine it. It is well to bear in mind that no marked success has ever yet attended these operations. The galenas that are found in these highly crystalline regions are often quite rich in silver ; and, as rich ores have been found in this state, the zeal in searching for them has always been active, but the amount of ore is always small and its extraction difficult. In Madison, where the surface indieations were promising and extensive operations begun, the money expended was lost, and the workings long abandoned, but lately the mine has been again opened with flattering prospects. Galena may be found in Madison, near White pond in Tamworth, and in small quantities scattered through the rocks in general. The galena from Madison was assayed and 94 ounces to the ton obtained with a large per cent. of silver. Though it is widely distributed, it may be quite safely affirmed that New England will never add any very great amount to the world's production of silver.
Bornite. - Sulphide of copper oceurs sparingly, associated with other copper ores, in Jackson.
Sphalerite. - At Madison there is a large vein of zine blende.
Pyrite. - Iron pyrites is very common, both in masses and as a constituent of the rocks. It forms a large proportion of the material of some metallic veins. At Red hill, in Moultonborough, it is to be obtained in abundance.
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MINERALS.
Chalcopyrite is widely distributed over the state in varying amounts, but never in such quantity as to make workable deposits, although openings have been made with the hope of profit. It is found in Madison and Jackson.
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