USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > History of Coos County, New Hampshire > Part 7
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The ascent is made by the railway from the west side, and the carriage road from the east. The railroad is three miles long, and has an average
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WHITE MOUNTAINS.
rise of one foot in four, the steepest being thirteen and one-half inches to the yard. The grade is overcome by means of cog-wheels working in a cog- rail in the center of the track, and powerful brakes on engines and cars insure safety. No passenger has been injured since the road was opened. The running time is one and one-half hours, and only one car is run with each engine.
Mountain Tragedies .- The destruction of the Willey family by a land slide in the White Mountain Notch, occurred August 28, 1826. Frederick Strickland, an Englishman, perished in the Ammonoosuc Ravine, in Oc- tober, 1831. Miss Lizzie Bourne, of Kennebunk, Me., perished on the Glen bridle-path, near the Summit, on the night of September 14, 1555. Dr. B. L. Ball, of Boston, was lost on Mt. Washington, in October, 1855, in a snow storm, but rescued after two days' and nights' exposure, with- out food or sleep. Benjamin Chandler, of Delaware, perished near Chandler's Peak, half a mile from the top of Mt. Washington, August ī, 1856, in a storm, and his remains were not discovered for nearly a year. Harry W. Hunter, of Pittsburg, Pa., perished on the Crawford bridle-path. September 3, 1874. a mile from the Summit. His remains were found nearly six years later, July 14, 1880. On the north side of Cherry mountain occurred the noted landslide of July 10, 1885. This was the largest slide ever known in the mountains. Donald Walker was the only one who lost his life. July 24, 1886, the great snow arch in Tucker- man's Ravine, near Mt. Washington, N. H., fell, and instantly killed Sewall Faunce, the fifteen-year-old son of Mr. Faunce, of the law firm of Faunce & Wiggin, School street, Boston.
The first number of Among the Clouds, the first daily newspaper pub- lished in the White Mountains, and the only one printed on any mountain in the world. was issued July 18, 1877, by Henry M. Burt, of Springfield, Mass. The paper records much that pertains to the exploration of the White Hills, and the development of its unexplored resources. Almost every week something worth preserving about the mountains is printed in its columns. It is indispensable to the enjoyment of those who reside for the season among the mountains. "When the season is fairly open, Mr. Burt receives, by telegraph, the full list of the daily arrivals at the principal hotels in the mountains, and publishes it in the following issue. Two editions are published daily, one at 1 p. M., and and one at 5 A. M., each summer, from July to the close of the season. The afternoon edition contains the names of the arrivals on the morning train from Faby- an's, and on the stages from the Glen House. The publication office is the old Tip Top House, nicely fitted up, and equipped with a steam engine and Hoe cylinder press.
The signal station at the Summit was established in 1870. Prof. J. H. Huntington, of the State Geological Survey, was at the head of the party
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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.
that spent the first winter here. The building now occupied by the ob- servers was erected in 1873.
For descriptions of Fabyan House, Crawford House, White Mountain House, and Twin Mountain House, see Carroll.
The Mt. Washington Summit House, with nearly one hundred sleep- ing rooms, is a commodious and comfortable hotel, under the manage- ment of Col. Oscar G. Barron.
CHAPTER VII.
PLANTS.
Trees - Shrubs - Grasses -- Introduced Plants - Alpine Plants.
T 'HE vegetation of Coos county contrasts strongly with that of the southern counties of the state. The somber colors of the Canadian evergreens largely take the places of the light foliage of the deciduous trees, and the Canadian flora occupies almost wholly the entire county to the exclusion of the more southern or Alleghanian division.
Trees .- " Our arbor vitæ is," says Prof. Gray, "the physiognomic tree of our cold swamps at the north and in Canada." It is generally incor- rectly called ** white cedar," and enters as a prominent element into the flora of Coos county, growing most abundantly along the borders of slow streams and in swamps, and varying from thirty to fifty feet in height. White spruce grows extensively in the region of Connecticut lake, but is rarely found below Colebrook. The balsam fir and black spruce, growing together in about equal numbers, give to the scenery of the White Moun- tains one of its peculiar features. "The stiff, spiked forms of the one are mingled with the blackish-green foliage of the other almost universally along the mountain sides, and are the last of the arborescent vegetation to yeld to the increased cold and fierce winds of the higher summits." North of the mountains, they, with arbor-vitæ, are the predominant evergreens. The hemlock, so graceful when young, has its northern limit in the neigh- borhood of Colebrook and Umbagog lake. The American larch (hack- matack or tamarack) is chiefly found in small swamps. When the county was first known to civilization, the Connecticut valley was filled with a stately growth of the highly prized white pine, many of them fit for the "broad arrow " mark of the British Crown as mast trees sacred to the
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PLANTS.
King's service. Now a few specimens, occuring mostly at the head waters of the streams, are all that remain of the original profusion. Second growths of this tree here are of rare occurrence, even when the cleared land is allowed to return to forest. The Canadian yew. or " ground hemlock, " is present in the swamps, while the savin and juniper occupy higher ground. The red maple gives the brilliant scarlet color to our autumnal scenery. The rock, or sugar maple, is the largest of the maples and is an important economic factor, producing as it does maple sirup and sugar, and much valuable timber. The beech and the sugar maple are the most common of the deciduous trees of this county, making up most of the " hard-wood " for- ests. The black, yellow, and canoe birches are common, the latter being conspicuous, high on the sides of the mountains, its white bark showing in striking contrast with the dark trunks and foliage of the firs and spruce. Dalton, Berlin, Gorham and Shelburne are in the red oak zone. The American elm is native to the alluvial soil of the larger rivers, and, owing to its majestic appearance, wherever it is found it is very prominent. The black poplar grows quite large, has dark colored bark on the trunk, and is much used in making "wood-pulp." A small variety of poplar, which sometimes springs up in great abundance in cleared land, never attains large growth.
Shrubs .- The mountain ash clings to the mountain sides and streanis, and its red berries hang brilliant in autumn. Blackberries and raspberries are present. the red raspberry being one of the most numerous plants of the county. The blueberry genus is well represented by the Canadian and dwarf blue-berry, the cowberry, and the swamp cranberry. In the swamps we often find the Canadian holly and winter berry, while on the poorer soil of the hills the sumach matures. The alder, willow, witch hazel, high bush cranberry. Labrador tea, common and red-berried elder, moosewood. American yew, with currants and gooseberries are found in the localities for which nature has fitted them.
The shrubs grow smaller and smaller as the mountains are ascended. The mountain aster and golden rod, the white orchis, the white hellebore, the wood-sorrel, and Solomon's seal ascend into the black growth, while the clintonia, bunch berry, bluets, creeping snowberry, purple trilliums keep them company and cease to grow at the same altitude.
Grasses .- " Blue joint" (Calamogrostic Canadensis). is the principal native grass, and grows luxuriantly. "Herd's grass" (P. Pratensis), not indigenous, grows in the lumber roads throughout the county as an intro- duced plant, and can be traced along the carriage road on Mt. Washington far above the limit of trees.
Introduced Plants .-- The white willow of Europe, which brought to some place in the Connecticut valley as a shade tree, has extended itself along the river, and is as much at home in Stewartstown and Pittsburg as
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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.
by the borders of European streams. The Canadian plum is much culti- vated, and grows frequently where man has never planted it. The hemp- nettle has come in some way from the Merrimack valley through Fran- conia Notch and made itself at home from Whitefield to the clearings around Connecticut lake. The garden wormwood finds in the slaty con- stituents of the soil of Pittsburg the needed elements for its life and flour- ishes in the open air without cultivation.
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Alpine Plants .- An Alpine or Arctic vegetation is found on the treeless region of the upper heights of Mt. Washington and adjacent peaks, where alone are found the conditions favorable to their growth. They are of great hardihood and sometimes bloom amid ice and snow. This region which they occupy is a windswept tract above the growth of trees and about eight miles long by two miles wide. About fifty species are strictly Alpine and found nowhere else in the state. About fifty other species accompany them, and are also found at the base of the mountains and other parts of the state. These are called "sub-Alpines," and occupy the ravines and lower parts of the treeless region, but not the upper summits. In ascending the mountains, the firs and spruces become more and more dwarfish, at last rising but a few feet, while the branches spread out horizontally many feet, and become thickly interwoven. They present an almost even upper sur- face, strong enough to walk upon. At last these disappear giving place to the dwarf birch, Alpine willows, Labrador tea, and Lapland rhododen- dron, which spread out over the nearest rocks after rising a few inches above the ground, thus gaining the warmth which enables them to live in spite of cold and storm. On the top of the summits these are succeeded by the Greenland sandwort, cassiope, the diapensia, azalia, Alpine bearberry, with Arctic rushes, lichens and sedges.
CHAPTER VIII.
GAME OF COOS COUNTY.
BY HON. J. W. WEEKS.
Beaver - Dams - Moose - Description, Food, Etc. - Deer, Caribou, Etc .- Horns - Bear - Wolverine - Lynx - Otter - Fisher -Sable - Raccoon - Grey Squirrel-Wild Geese and Ducks - Ruffed Grouse or Partridge -- Canada Grouse or Spruce Partridge - Wild Pigeons.
B EAVER .- It does not appear that the Indians ever cultivated the lands or wintered on the Connecticut farther north than Haverhill, conse- quently the wild animals were not so constantly beset by them in early times as they were farther south, or on the St. Lawrence. An old
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GAME OF COOS COUNTY.
writer says above the mountains was a "paradise for hunters." The beaver inhabited this region in immense numbers. This animal, with instinct almost human, was in shape, except the tail, like the muskrat, but weighing twenty or twenty-five pounds. The tail, six or eight inches long, covered with thick scales, was very strong, broad at the extremity, and some three inches wide. It not only assisted the animal in swimming but in sitting at his work. The beaver's tail and nose of the moose were considered the greatest of delicacies, each being cooked in the same way- wrapped in bark or leaves, and buried in the embers of the camp-fire till thoroughly roasted, when the skin was pulled off, and the feast commenced. It is said that the Indians cooked the whole beaver in this manner. thus losing the skin. The beaver was substantially exterminated prior to the settlement of Lancaster.
With regard to the beaver marks in this section, Major Weeks said there were dams on Martin's meadow "fifty rods long and five feet high " in his day. Their meadows were found in every brook ; and their canals were cut from every pond surrounded by bogs, to the highlands. In a pond of a few acres in the north part of Whitefield, a canal was cut through the bog back to the high ground. This was as straight and true as if done by a spade and line. It was twenty inches or two feet wide. and so deep that in winter the beavers could pass to and from the pond under the ice. Their home was on this canal from which they reached the high ground, entering so deep down as to be below the frost. These canals served a double purpose : they were the means of reaching the deciduous trees, the bark of which served them for food, and as a concealment from their enemies. These pond-beavers had holes along their canals, below the frost, that extended long distances and struck high land, where they dug up to where it was dry, and made their homes. From these burrows they could reach the pond and feed upon the roots of the cow lily, which was a favorite food of the beaver as well as the moose. East of Lancaster are two beaver meadows, containing a hundred acres or more. the upper one, of thirty or forty acres, at the junction of two considerable streams. has canals cut through it in various directions, some of them still eighteen inches deep, and the banks of earth thrown up along the sides in some places over two feet high These canals, unlike those eut from the natural ponds, were for the purpose of passing from place to place under the ice. and for storing their food, which consisted, in those artificial ponds, mostly of the bark of deciduous trees which grew along the banks, and were cut into pieces eighteen or twenty inches long, and sunk in the bottom of the canal. At the extreme upper end of this pond, on the main branch, is a mound about sixteen feet over and five feet high, with a deep trench extending nearly around it, and a canal running directly from it across the meadow to the opposite brook. This canal is more than twenty-five rods long, and the mound was evidently their house.
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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.
I have never but once seen where the beaver were at work. This was in the fall of 1844, in the forest in the northern part of the state, on Perry's stream. There was a new formed dam spanning the stream, which was fifteen or twenty feet wide at the place. This dam was three feet or more high, composed of brush at first, with the tops down stream, then filled in with stones, sticks, mud, and other material. It was considerably arched, so that the pressure of the current on its center crowded the ends against the banks and strengthened the structure. Near by was a white or river maple, three to four inches through, cut down, and several pieces cut from it eighteen or twenty inches long, and others partly cut. How such a mass of sticks, stones, gravel, and mud, as composed this dam were ever con- veved there, is a mystery to me. When a boy, I often saw beaver cuttings about the ponds, once lagoons, but they were always old and seemed to be done by wandering animals ; a tree would be cut down and left where it fell. The beaver, in felling a tree, cuts around it, cutting above and below, and tearing, or splitting out the chips, leaving the stump in the shape of a cone, tapering to a point at an angle of about forty-five degrees.
The Moose was not destroyed before the settlement of this northern country. The hunters killed them only to supply themselves with food when they were unsuccessful in trapping the beaver. The large extent of fertile soil, with its numerous streams and ponds, made this a favorite resort for all game that roamed a northern forest, more particularly of that strange and uncouth animal, the moose. He seems to have come down from a former period of time. No naturalist with whose writings I am acquainted, has given an adequate description of the habits and peculiar characteristics of this creature. Judge Caton, who has written a most exhaustive work on the " Deer of America," treats him as a herbivorous animal like the common deer, when his habits are much different from the caribou or reindeer. His long forelegs and short neck preclude his feeding from the ground without bending them or getting on his knees ; the long prehensile nose serving the purpose of the elephant's trunk, dropping three inches or more over the mouth, which is wholly out of sight as you stand beside or in front of him, with nostrils capable of being distended to an enormous size, or of being entirely closed, yet constantly vibrating, and usually narrowed to the merest slit when the creature is at rest. The little deep, and villainous looking eye, with its false, transparent lid, at one time half covering the sight, and then withdrawn, like that seen in aquatic animals or birds, show that the moose is not a grazing animal like the deer, and not destined to subsist on the common herbage of the forest.
I suppose the moose in the summer season feeds largely upon the twigs and branches of deciduous trees: but their favorite food is aquatic plants and roots. Hunters, who have seen him eating, have told me that he would wade in the mud and water up to about midside, and put his head
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GAME OF COOS COUNTY.
below the surface, feel around, and, when he got hold of the right root, would pull it up, shake it in the water, and munch it as it floated around him. His flexible nose was very useful to feel and bring up the favorite roots, and the power to perfectly close his nostrils together with the trans- parent lid protecting his eyes, left those organs in perfect condition to per- form their offices when the head was raised above the surface.
Perhaps it may not be amiss to say something of the root of the cow- lily, which formed so important an article of food for the moose. Most people have seen the pads and large yellow blossoms. The roots of the lily are nearly the size of a man's arm, and lie horizontally a few inches below the surface of the mud, forming a net-work so strong that a man may walk upon them. From appearance they last for ages, each season sending out feeder roots, leaves, and flower stalks. that fall away at the commencement of cold weather. These roots are quite porous, are as easily cut as a potato, and have a pungent but not unpleasant smell. The winter food of the moose was principally the bark of the mountain ash (which grows very large and in great abundance upon the mountains), although I have been told that at times they used the bark of the white maple. The moose strikes his teeth into the bark like a set of gouges, cuts diagonally across the wood, and upward, and gathers the bark into his mouth, as it falls, with his long, pliable, upper lip I never saw where the bark was taken from a tree nearer than two feet of the ground, but have seen them peeled as high as eight or nine feet.
I have never hunted the moose, but business has led me into his imme- diate neighborhood, where for days I would not be out of sight of his marks on his feeding grounds. At one time I had the good fortune to be able to study a tame one. This was a fine animal, about two years old, not quite as large as a colt of the same age. It was perfectly gentle and enjoyed being petted as much as a colt.
The moose were not wantonly destroyed by the respectable inhabitants of the country, as they considered them as a never-ending supply of meat, but by the vagabonds who always infest a new settlement. Some idea of the vast numbers of these animals may be gained from the fact (as stated by Edward Spaulding and Major John W. Weeks) that Nathan Caswell took it into his head to kill a hundred moose on the ernst in one winter. and actually did kill ninety-nine, and Spaulding said he chased the hun- dredth one into the Burnside meadow, in East Lancaster, and lost him. Caswell lived on the noses and other nice bits, and only saved a part of the skins. He did this upon the same principle that wolves kill sheep -- for mere wickedness. It is said that the inhabitants were so incensed at this that they refused him shelter in their houses and drove him from the settle- ment. [This Caswell was not Capt. Nathan Caswell. the first settler and prominent citizen of Littleton, but probably was his son, a man of roving
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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.
habits.] Other persons probably killed as many more, but they increased rapidly, and I have heard James B. Weeks say, that in 1808 or 1810, "there came a very deep snow, and, in March, a sharp crust, so that there were killed in Lancaster and surrounding towns as many as ninety moose, mostly wantonly." The few that survived this devastation moved to safer quarters.
Among the early settlers of Lancaster who occasionally hunted the moose were Stanley, Bucknam, and Blake. The two latter were remark- able for their deadly aim with the long smooth-bore. Stanley was also noted for the accuracy of his shots. At one time he killed four moose in Cherry pond by making five shots in quick succession, and bringing down four of the animals. Stanley owned and lived on what was later called the Bellows place, and afterwards owned by Capt. Beattie. Bucknam resided near the brick school-house in Lancaster, and Blake, near the mouth of John's river.
I should not do justice to this subject if I did not speak of the manner in which the hunters brought in their meat when they killed it at a dis- tance from home. Whether the toboggan is a modern invention or not I will leave for others to decide. The hunter kills a moose, takes off the skin, spreads it out, strips the flesh from the bones, and wraps it in the skin, which lies full length, and of equal widths (perhaps a foot and a half wide), binds it up with thongs cut from the edge of the skin, being sure that the thongs as they go round the pack are beneath the hair, and turns up the neck in the shape of the dasher to the toboggan. To this he fast- ens a withe, and lets the whole freeze, if it will. The slightest crust will bear this toboggan, and no sled ever ran smoother.
Deer. Caribou, Etc .- When the Creator formed the animals to inhabit the earth, he made them to serve certain purposes in the courses of nature. one to fill this place, another that, but, at last, when he wanted a thing of beauty, he made the American deer, and he must have been well pleased with the work of his hands.
Very few deer ever found their way north of the White Mountains till the moose were substantially exterminated. In conversation, many years ago, with Edward Spaulding and James B. Weeks upon this subject, Mr. Spaulding, who came to the country in 1767. said, when he was a boy, a deer used to come and feed with his father's cattle in Northumberland, and after a time his father killed it. Mr. Weeks said that in 1810 there were some deer about Cherry pond, and two or three were killed on the crust by Lan- caster men. They must have been considered extremely rare at that time or men would not have gone eight miles through an unbroken forest to hunt them.
About 1518 or 1820 a deer was seen in the road near Prospect Farm. The boy who saw it described the animal and there was much questioning as
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GAME OF COOS COUNTY.
to what it was. From this time their increase in Lancaster and vicinity was very rapid. They were seen about the ponds and streams, in the fields, and their marks were in the forest. The inhabitants did not know how to hunt them, and the deer were unmolested for a long time. A few were killed on the crust, but their meat was worthless at that season, and pub- lic opinion was against the killing of them for mere sport. After a time the people learned to still-hunt and trap them in the fall, and their meat and skins was quite a source of profit. The section with which I was best acquainted was South Lancaster, Dalton and Whitefield. It was said that Samuel Barker, of Dalton, killed forty with his rifle one fall, most of them he sent to market. A farmer who lived on the farm now owned by George P. Rowell killed fifteen one season, within a mile from home. In some well to-do families venison was the most common fresh meat.
The reason for the great number of deer in the locality spoken of was probably the fact that they were not chased by hounds, for if one pursued a deer into that region he was killed. They were chased in Vermont and at Littleton. It will be noticed when the deer were so numerous, Lancas- ter was well occupied by farms, and the towns south well dotted with set- tlements. The deer, during the summer and fall, lived largely about the clearings, feeding on the tender herbage that sprung up after the running of the fires, or in the fields of the settlers. Whatever was palatable to a sheep was agreeable to the deer. Growing grain, wheat or oats did not come amiss; peas, potatoes, turnips, apples, and anything that a sheep would eat, the deer craved, and, in some instances, they were more than half domesticated. I will give an example: Since 1850, they would in the spring of the year be often seen on my meadow, a mile east of the village, as many as four at a time, but would generally disappear after the herbage was well started, but there was a doe that remained three years in succes- sion and raised a pair of fawns, which she kept hid in the small piece of woods west of the river, directly below E. F. Connor's. In August the fawns, then fine little animals, would appear with the mother. Of the last pair she raised there, one was perfectly white, except its nose and the back of its ears, which were tinged with red. The next March. 1854, some hunters from Manchester, hearing of these deer, came up with their hunt- ing shirts, their hounds, snow-shoes, long-range rifles, and all the parapher- nalia of city sportsmen to hunt the deer we did not know what to do with. They made their headquarters at the American House, and the next morn- ing. after fortifying their inner man (gentleman, I mean.) and raising their courage to a pitch necessary to so great and hazardous an undertaking, they went up and put their dogs after those inoffensive and helpless animals. They drove the white one up across the meadow and caught it by the side of the road a little west of where John Jerome now lives; they took it down to the American House in great state, and thence to Manchester. Whether
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