USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > History of the White mountains > Part 20
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" If we attempt to speculate on the manner in which the peculiar species of plants now established on the highest summits of the White Mountains, were enabled to reach those isolated spots, while none of them are met with in the lower lands around, or for a great distance to the north, we shall find ourselves engaged in trying to solve a philosophical problem, which requires the aid, not of botany alone, but of geology, or a knowledge of the geographical changes which immediately preceded the present state of the earth's surface.
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We have to explain how an Arctic flora, consisting of plants specifically identical with those which now inhabit lands bordering the sea in the extreme north of America, Europe, and Asia, could get to the top of Mount Washing-
ton. Now, geology teaches us that the species living at present on the earth are older than many parts of our exist- ing continent ; that is to say, they were created before a large part of the existing mountains, valleys, plains, lakes, rivers and seas, were formed. That such must be the case in regard to the island of Sicily, I announced my conviction in 1833, after first returning from that country. And a simi- lar conclusion is no less obvious to any naturalist who has studied the structure of North America, and observed the wide area occupied by the modern or glacial deposit before alluded to,* in which marine fossil shells of living but northern species are entombed. It is clear that a great portion of Canada, and the country surrounding the great lakes, was submerged beneath the ocean when recent species of mollusca flourished, of which the fossil remains occur more than five hundred feet above the level of the sea, near Mon- treal. I have already stated that Lake Champlain was a gulf of the sea at that period, that large areas in Maine were under water, and I may add that the White Moun- tains must then have constituted an island, or group of islands. Yet, as this period is so modern in the earth's his-
* " Some of the concretions of fine clay, more or less calcareous, met with in New Hampshire, in this 'drift' on the Saco river, thirty miles to the north of Portsmouth, contain the entire skeletons of a fossil fish of the same species as one now living in the Northern Seas, called the capetan (Mallotus villosus), about the size of a sprat, and sold abundantly in the London market, salted and dried like herrings. I obtained some of these fossils, which, like the asso- ciated shells, show that a colder climate than that now prevailing in this region was established in what is termed ' the glacial period.'"
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tory as to belong to the epoch of the existing marine fauna, it is fair to infer that the Arctic flora now contemporary with man was then also established on the globe.
" A careful study of the present distribution of animals and plants over the globe has led nearly all the best naturalists to the opinion that each species had its origin in a single birthplace, and spread gradually from its original centre to all accessible spots fit for its habitation, by means of the powers of migration given to it from the first. If we adopt this view, or the doctrine of 'specific centres,' there is no difficulty in comprehending how the cryptogamous plants of Siberia, Lapland, Greenland and Labrador, scaled the heights of Mount Washington, because the sporules of the fungi, lichens and mosses, may be wafted through the air for indefi- nite distances, like smoke; and, in fact, heavier particles are actually known to have been carried for thousands of miles by the wind. But the cause of the occurrence of Arctic plants of the phænogamous class on the top of the New Hamp- shire mountains, specifically identical with those of remote Polar regions, is by no means so obvious. They could not, in the present condition of the earth, effect a passage over the intervening low lands, because the extreme heat of sum- mer and cold of winter would be fatal to them. Even if they were brought from the northern parts of Asia, Europe and America, and thousands of them planted round the foot of Mount Washington, they would never be able, in any number of years, to make their way to its summit. We must suppose, therefore, that originally they extended their range in the same way as the flowering plants now inhabiting Arctic and Antarctic lands disseminate themselves. The in- numerable islands in the Polar seas are tenanted by the same species of plants, some of which are conveyed as seeds by
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animals over the ice when the sea is frozen in winter, or by birds ; while a still larger number are transported by floating icebergs, on which soil containing the seeds of plants may be carried in a single year for hundreds of miles. A great body of geological evidence has now been brought together, to some of which I have adverted in a former chapter, to show that this machinery for scattering plants, as well as for carry- ing erratic blocks southward, and polishing and grooving the floor of the ancient ocean, extended in the western hemi- sphere to lower latitudes than the White Mountains. When these last still constituted islands in a sea chilled by the melt- ing of floating ice, we may assume that they were covered entirely by a flora like that now confined to the uppermost or treeless region of the mountains. As the continent grew by the slow upheaval of the land, and the islands gained in height, and the climate around their base grew milder, the Arctic plants would retreat to higher and higher zones, and finally occupy an elevated area, which probably had been at first, or in the glacial period, always covered with perpetual snow. Meanwhile, the newly-formed plains around the base of the mountains, to which northern species of plants could not spread, would be occupied by others migrating from the south, and perhaps by many trees, shrubs and plants, then first created, and remaining to this day peculiar to North America.
"The period when the White Mountains ceased to be a group of islands, or when, by the emergence of the surrounding low land, they first became connected with the continent, is, as we have seen, of very modern date, geologically speak- ing. It is, in fact, so recent as to belong to the epoch when species now contemporaneous with man already inhabited this planet. But, if we attempt to carry our retrospect still fur-
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ther into the past, and to go back to the date when the rocks themselves of the White Mountains originated, we are lost in times of extreme antiquity. No light is thrown on this inquiry by imbedded organic remains, of which the strata of gneis, mica schist, clay slate and quartzite, are wholly devoid. These masses are traversed by numerous veins of granite and greenstone, which are therefore newer than the stratified crystalline rocks which they intersect; and the abrupt man- ner in which these veins terminate at the surface, attesta li >w much denudation or removal by water of solid matter has taken place. Another question, of a chronological kind, may yet deserve attention ; namely, the epoch of the movements which threw the body of gneis and the associated rocks into their present bent, disturbed, and vertical positions. This subject is also involved in considerable obscurity, although it seems highly probable that the crystalline strata of New Hampshire acquired their internal arrangements at the same time as the fossilferous beds of the Appalachian or Alleghany chain; and we know that they assumed their actual strike and dip subsequently to the origin of the coal measures, which enter so largely into the structure of that chain."
CHAPTER XXII.
CONCLUSION.
BEFORE we leave these mountains, around which we have so long detained the reader, let us earnestly invite him to visit them. If he has already made their acquaintance, let him come again, and often. Not too often can he drink in the inspira- tion of these noble hills. If he has never yet stood beneath their mighty shadow, he cannot do so too soon. New sen- sations yet await him. Come from the thronged cities and dusty streets, and refresh yourselves yearly in the clear atmosphere of these "Crystal Hills." Says the eloquent Webster: " We believe and we know that its scenery is beautiful; that its skies are all healthful; that its mountains and lakes are surpassingly grand and sublime.
"If there be anything on this continent, the work of nature, in hills, and lakes, and woods, and forests, strongly attracting the admiration of all those who love natural scenery, that is to be found in our mountain state of New Hampshire. It happened to me lately to visit the northern part of the state. It was autumn. The trees of the forest, by the discoloration of the leaves, presented one of the most beautiful spectacles that the human eye can rest upon. But the low and deep murmur of those forests, the fog rising and spreading and clasping the breast of the mountains,
25
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whose heads were still high and bright in the skies, - all these indicated that a wintry storm was on its wing; that the spirit of the mountain was stirred, and that, ere long, the voice of tempests would be spent. But even this was excit- ing,- exciting to those of us who were witnesses before, and exciting in itself as an exhibition of the grandeur of natural scenery. For my part, I felt the truth of that sentiment applied elsewhere and on another occasion, that
' The loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar But bound me to my native mountains more.' "'
Come ; and when you come, come prepared to stay, to study, to feel them. Select some home beneath their broad shadows, and each day roam over and among them until they are yours-their image and their might indelibly fastened in your memory. " These old settlers are somewhat tardy in forming intimate acquaintanceships. With them 'confidence is a plant of slow growth.' Their externals they give to the eye in a moment, on a clear day; but their character, their occasional moods of superior majesty, their coy loveliness of light and drapery - all that makes them a refreshment, a force, a joy for the rest of your years, they show only to the calmer eye - to a man who waits a day or two in order to unthink his city habits, and bide their time. It is utterly impossible to know what the White Mountains are by whirl- ing through Conway, and Glen, and Notch, and Franconia, in a week. Use the week at some one central point. Spend the same money at one spot that is to spread over the length- ened journey ; take the proper times for driving out to the best positions, and the mountains will come to you, which, it is said, they refused to do for the author of the Koran."
Bring not the cares and anxieties of Wall-street and State-
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street, but shake off the very dust of them from your feet as you set your faces northward to these summer resorts. Freedom is an essential element in the air of these moun- tains, - freedom from the brain-ache and heart-ache attend- ant upon this money strife. Dollars and cents do not count in Tuckerman's Ravine, and their jingle is in harsh disso- nance of the fall of the Thousand Streams. Calculation of percentage, as one sits and sees the
" Mysteries of color daily laid By the great sun in light and shade,"
on these rugged, craggy heights, is impossible. Stocks are valueless when standing at the sources of those mighty rivers, which carry fertility, and wealth, and health, to all New England. Freedom from political prejudice is here found. Washington and Jefferson suffer no political strifes or ranklings beneath their shadows. Whigs and democrats go toiling up their steep sides together, and northerners and southerners, side by side on the same summit, look off on the same wide prospect below them. Americans and for- eigners, descendants from the fathers of the Revolution and exiles from the iron rod of despotism, all bow in reverence and acknowledge willing allegiance to
" This family of mountains, clustering around Their hoary patriarch."
Freedom from the thousand petty annoyances and restraints of city and village life is here the bliss of the . traveller. Does the exhilarating air stimulate ? Go out, and, to the full capacity of the lungs, wake the echoes of the hills. The chest all bare, breathe in the pure mountain air, until your deep tones shall awaken the talk of the hills, peak answering
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to peak in the far-off distance. Is the dress of fashionable life too restraining for climbing over the rough and broken places ? - throw it off, and, clad in freer, looser garments, run, and walk, and ramble, the livelong day. No gossip should be whispered in the beautiful glen ; no petty etiquette should be observed while standing on the ruins of the terrible avalanches.
Worshippers and followers of the same great Author of these mountains may forget their different sects, and bow in unison around these mighty "altars."
" Not vainly did the early Persian make His altar the high places and the peak Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, and thus take A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek The Spirit, in whose honor shrines are weak Upreared of human hands. Come, and compare Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek, With Nature's realms of worship, - earth and air, Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer !"
Come, and amid the works of God study the words of God. " The Bible came out of a mountain country. The book of Exodus, which, for poetic sublimity, makes the coloring of the Iliad pale, should be read, if one would get the true commentary on it, as Dr. Robinson read the sublimest pas- sages of it, a few years ago, among the cliffs of Horeb, over- looking the plateau where the gathered wanderers saw the mountain quake and blaze. 'Job' must be studied by an imagination that can conjure Idumean landscapes and skies. There are passages in the prophets which no annotations could interpret to men that had lived on prairies all their days. And the Psalms, especially, which are dyed in the spirit of all kinds of scenery, as well as in the most intense
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and varied experiences of the soul,- which interweave with their rapturous piety imagery and colors caught from the pastures of Bethlehem, the forests of Horeth, the caves of Adullam, the wilderness of Engedi, and the mountain fast- nesses of Ziph,- cannot yield the riches of inspiration to a formal reading, but must, many of them, be set under influ- ences of nature kindred to those which helped to kindle them, before they will glow and sing themselves anew. The twenty-third should be read once in sight of the Connecticut meadows ; the nineteenth, on a hill overlooking a desert ; the eighteenth, during a thunder-shower; the eighth, under a sparkling, frosty night sky; the sixty-fifth after a rain that breaks the drought; then the power of poetry, as well as of piety, that is in them would be manifest."
" Lo ! in softened grandeur far, yet clear, Thy battlements stand clothed in heaven's own hue, To swell as Freedom's home on man's unbounded view !"
Mountains are ever favorable to liberty. They abound with the very elements of its life and vigor. Survey the objects they embrace, and you must see the truth of this remark. These are all free and active in their movements. No fetter constrains them, no shackle confines them. Its streams all murmur the tones of freedom as they flow in their courses. Its eagles all scream of liberty as they wheel their flight about its romantic slopes, and over its more tow- ering elevations. The note of every other bird, too, is in keeping with these. They all chirp exemption from enthral- ment, as they line its green valleys, or flit along its beautiful hill-sides.
Mountains are especially favorable to the cause of human liberty. When driven out from other portions of the world, 25*
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she has always found an asylum in her mountains. There she is cherished. Nature comes to the protection of her votary, and throws around him the bulwarks of its rocks and precipices. These, wherever he comes to them, check the tyrant in his progress. This has been the case in all past time. " The inhabitants of our New Hampshire mountains were, it must be confessed, from the first, rather inclined to a mutinous spirit. I believe that is common to mountainous regions in most parts of the world. Scotland and Switzer- land show the example of hardy, strong men in mountainous regions, attached to war and to the chase ; and it is not un- fortunate in our New Hampshire history that this sentiment, to a considerable degree, prevailed."
May liberty never be driven to our mountain passes. May we never be forced to these retreats, and the "patriot group " see tyrants marshalling their troops in these valleys. O, the voice with which those hoary peaks would almost speak ! O, the anguish of Washington !
" I know the value of liberty. I helped pay a large price for it in the sweat I expended on the field of Monmouth ; in the cold and suffering I endured at Valley Forge; in the dreadful suspense I had on the banks of the Delaware pre- vious to the battle at Princeton ; and now how can I bear to see it lost ?
" I have stood here with my compeers, for a long time, watching the movement of things on the broad territory for whose good I toiled, with the feeling all the while in me that, if its inhabitants perpetuated the freedom I helped give them, I should be well compensated for my sufferings. But, if they barter it, and ever succumb to a tyrant, either tem- poral or spiritual, I could never wish to see the sight, but would gladly cover my head with an unbroken thick veil of
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cloud, as I have sometimes done with passing ones, and never again look on a land of vassals and slaves.
" As I have once said, I say again : I know the value of liberty, and never, never while I have strength to stand here as firm as I do, while the vigor is in me still that has enabled me to buffet so many storms as I have, never, never will I barter it away. My head shall always be free from the badge of a slave, towering up toward heaven in a significant speaking adoration to the God that has formed me."
No oppression, certainly none sustained by law or custom, can ever exist around the White Mountains. This is a cheering reflection. No slave can ever live on them, or near them. They are consecrated to freedom. They are suited to produce a race of vigorous freemen. We have loved them in times past. We love them still.
" Where'er our wandering footsteps roam, To thee our fond affections cling ; Land of our love ! our childhood's home ! Land of the cliff and eagle's wing !
How proudly stands the mountain height That overlooks the vales and streams ! In youth it shone to bless our sight ; In age it lingers in our dreams.
'Tis in the mountain that the heart Resolves its thought and purpose high To act the just, the noble part For God, for truth, and liberty.
How oft has freedom, in the days Of grief and war's disastrous shocks, Her shattered banner dared to raise Once more upon the mountain rocks !
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Enthralment cannot climb that height ; Slaves cannot breathe that upper air ; Emblem of freemen, -'t is the flight Of eagles only that is there.
We love thee, land of rocks and rills ! Land of the wood, the lake, the glen ! Great in the grandeur of thy hills, And greater in thy mighty men."
We say, then, in a few words to close, all ye inhabitants in this broad land, all ye in every part of her wide domain, visit these mountains as ye have done, and in larger num- bers ; breathe their air ; bathe yourselves in their atmosphere, made rich and refreshing with bud and blossom; trace their rivers, and make closer acquaintance with their inhabitants, and you will get stronger, deeper energies to do life's great work. And you, inhabitants of the mountains, prize the privileges you enjoy, the blessings of your birthplace and home ; trace your way up often to God through some of his grandest works. Through all your life, in full sight of them, serve him and your country well; and then, when life is done, from the very midst of them you may go up to occupy those higher delectable mountains, the very sight of which captivated the soul of Bunyan,- those everlasting hills on whose shining summits the people of God from every clime will swell the anthems of eternity.
FINIS.
V
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