USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Incidents in White mountain history, fourth > Part 20
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INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
being except one man and one woman. They saved them- selves by going into a deep cave, in a large mountain, where they remained for several days, until the fire was extin- guished. They then came forth from their hiding-place, and from these two persons the whole earth has been peopled."
ORIGIN OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS.
" Cold storms were in the northern wilderness, and a lone red hunter wandered without food, chilled by the frozen wind. He lost his strength, and could find no game; and the dark cloud that covered his life-path made him weary of wandering. He fell down upon the snow, and a dream car- ried him to a wide happy valley, filled with musical streams, where singing-birds and game were plenty. His spirit cried aloud for joy ; and the 'Great Master of life' waked him from his sleep, gave him a dry coal and a flint-pointed spear, telling him that by the shore of the lake he might live, and find fish with his spear, and fire from his dry coal. One night, when he had laid down his coal, and seen a warm fire spring therefrom, with a blinding smoke, a loud voice came out of the flame, and a great noise, like thunder, filled the air, and there rose up a vast pile of broken rocks. Out of the cloud resting upon the top came numerous streams, dancing down, foaming cold; and the voice spake to the astonished red hunter, saying, 'Here the Great Spirit will dwell, and watch over his favorite children ! ' "
GEOLOGICAL.
Dr. Jackson, in his report of New Hampshire, thus speaks of the White Mountains : -
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284
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
" The White Mountains are the centre of a most interest- ing geological section. If a measure is applied to a correct map of the Northern and Middle States, taking the White Mountains for a centre, and measuring south-west and north- east, it will be noticed that the secondary rocks are nearly equi-distant from this centre of elevation, on each side of the axis, and the beds and included fossils will correspond in a remarkable manner, indicating that when the strata were horizontal, they formed a continuous deposit, effected under nearly the same conditions.
"If we estimate the strata of Vermont and Maine as horizon- tal, by imagining the primary rocks which separate them to be removed, and the lines of stratification brought to coincide in direction, it is evident that the whole of New England would be regarded as sunk far below the level of the ocean, and a space would still remain between the ends of the strata where the primary rocks had been removed. Now, since the strata were formed when the present rocks were beneath the sea, we may suppose the whole of the primary unstrati- fied rocks to have been below the stratified deposits, and, by a sudden outburst and elevation, to have been more or less broken up, altered in composition, and included between masses of the molten gneis and granite. Thus, we may ac- count for the loss of a portion of the disrupted strata, while we also explain the intercalation of masses of argillaceous slate in the primary series, and the metamorphosis of the sedimentary deposits by igneous action. A heaving sea of molten rocks, probably bearing on its surface the sedi- mentary strata, elevated, overturned, and effected chemical changes in them, the results of which we behold along the line of junction of the two classes of rocks.
" The reader would be able better to conceive of this state
285
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
of things, by the contemplation of the breaking up of a vol- canic crater, or may figure the scene in his mind by imagin- ing a frozen lake, with successive and thick layers of snow and ice, to be broken up by an earthquake, and the whole mass suddenly frozen while in the highest state of disturb- ance. This, however grand the scale, would not give a suf- ficiently enlarged idea of the vast movements of the earth's crust, nor of the changes which the materials must have un- dergone in the immense periods of geological time; for the action of a comparatively moderate heat for ages effects changes in the position of elementary particles which are not duly appreciated. This hypothesis will appear more plausible to those who will take the trouble to go over the ground from one end of the section to the other, noting the changes which are manifested in the order of strata, and considering the known causes of chemical action on the in- gredients of rocks. It will be observed that the sedimen- tary deposits have all been disturbed by upheaval, and that portions of strata are included in the unstratified rocks, showing their posterior eruption, while, in some places, the fracturing of strata has been still more remarkable, a com- plete breccia being formed with their comminuted fragments, and the thick pasty rocks of eruption.
" Occasionally, the mechanical power of elevated granite is manifested by the complete overturning, or doubling back of large sheets of mica slate, and its chemical effects are seen in the remarkable induration of the rock along the line of junction, those slabs, when not bent, being chosen by the quarrymen, on account of their superior firmness.
" The geological features of Mount Washington possess but little interest. The rocks in place consisting of a coarse variety of mica slate, passing in gneis, which contains a few
286
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
crystals of black tourmaline and quartz. The cone of the mountain and its summit are covered with myriads of angu- lar and flat blocks and slabs of mica slate, piled in confusion one upon the other. They are identical in nature with the rocks in place, and bear no marks of transportation or abra- sion by the action of water."
Sir Charles Lyell, the eminent English geologist, thus writes concerning these mountains : -
" The flora of the uppermost region of Mount Washington consists of species which are natives of the cold climate of Labrador, Lapland, Greenland and Siberia, and are impatient, says Bigelow, of drought, as well as of both extremes of heat and cold ; they are, therefore, not at all fitted to flour- ish in the ordinary climate of New England. But they are preserved here, during winter, from injury, by a great depth of snow, and the air in summer never attains, at this eleva- tion, too high a temperature, while the ground below is always cool. When the snow melts they shoot up instantly with vigor proportioned to the length of time they have been dormant, rapidly unfold their flowers, and mature their fruits, and run through the whole course of their vegetation in a few weeks, irrigated by clouds and mist.
" 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.
287
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
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 eapetan ( 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.'"
288
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
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 phenogamous 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
289
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
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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1
. 290
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
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, attests how 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.
EMPERATURE OF THE WEATHER AT THE MOUNTAINS.
THERMOMETRICAL TABLE. - SYNOPSIS OF THE WEATHER. - COMPARISON OF WEATHER WITH LONG ISLAND WEATHER. - EARTHQUAKES. - THUNDER- STORMS. - WIND. - COLD AND FROST. - CLEARNESS OF THE ATMOSPHERE. - LENGTH OF DAYS. - SPRINGS .- COMBUSTION.
FOR the following statement of the weather on the summit of Mount Washington, we are indebted entirely to the record of Mr. Nathaniel Noyes, of Boston. Mr. Noyes commenced a residence on the summit of Mount Washington, on the 7th of June, 1853, which he continued until noonday of the 16th of September,-one hundred consecutive days (with the exception of an absence of one week),- during all which time he kept a record of the temperature of the atmosphere, from observations with a thermometer, commencing with the 8th of June, at sunrise, noon and sunset, and continuing these observations three times daily until the 15th of Sep- tember.
It has been found by comparison that the temperature of Mt. Washington is more even than that of any other place at which a record has ever been kept. Before many years have elapsed, physicians, without doubt, will recommend to patients who require an even and cool temperature, a residence at the summit of Mt. Washington during the summer months.
292
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
THERMOMETRICAL TABLE.
JUNE, 1853. ||
JULY, 1853. || AUG., 1853.
|| SEPT., 1853.
Day.
Sunrise.
12 M
Sunset.
Day.
Sunrise.
12 M.
Sunset.
Day.
Sunrise.
12 M.
Sunset.
Day.
12 M.
Sunset.
8
32
40
34
1
43
55
45
1
42
59
50
1
41
51
47
9
31
45
40
2
32
46
38
2
49
51
49
2
45
58
55
10
38
52
48
3
44
53
48
3
48
58
49
3
50
58
55
11
44
47
43
4
52
60
54
4
49
54
48
4
52
55
54
12
32
48
44
5
42
51
42
5
45
54
53
5
50
58
57
13
43
56
47
6
39
48
39
6
51
60
49
6
57
59
56
14
48
60
55
7
29
47
37
7
46
53
48
7
56
49
45
15
53
59
55
8
38
50
49
8
49 50
52
52
33
44
41
17
54
56
52
10
45
50
45
10
48
59
57
10
37
40
32
18
43
48
40
11
45
54
48
11
52
62
59
11
28
29
27
19
39
49
42
12
40
52
45
12
52
60
59
12
24
29
30
20
50
66
58
13
38
49
45
13
59
60
56
13
32
36
39
22
54
58
55
15
52
62
51
15
45
57
53
15
45
50
47
23
58
60
55
16
51
56
52
16
50
56
55
16
38
42
56
42
35
17
44
49
37
17
49
62
55
25
30
36
32
18
39
55
48
18
48
58
51
26
24
37
30
19
52
53
50
19
33
37
33
27
32
44
38
20
42
50
41
20
30
35
36
28
34
43
35
21
38
45
46
21
36
46
45
29
45
64
58
22
42
60
56
22
39
40
35
30
54
61
53
23
50
66
56
23
33
43
42
24
54
64
59
24
37
46
45
25
52
63
55
25
44
42
36
26
50
51
45
26
31
47
42
27
43
59
49
27
42
47
47
28
39
47
45
28
34
35
32
29
44
59
54
29
31
46
43
30
49
59
56
30
38
51
50
31
50
59
49
31
46
49
46
SYNOPSIS OF THE WEATHER.
The following is a synopsis of the weather during each month :
JUNE, 1853.
Average temperature at sunrise, 43.3 degrees.
Average temperature at 12 M., 53.5 degrees.
1
21
48
57
50
14
42
59
49
14
58
60
50
14
38
46
42
16
54
62
55
9
41
49
45
9
58
48
8 9
30
40
36
24
Sunrise.
293
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
Average temperature at sunset, 45.7 degrees. Thermometer stood lowest, 26th day, 24
66 highest, 20th day, 66
66 66 below freezing at sunrise, 6 days.
66 66 at sunset, 2
The greatest change in any day occurred the 24th, when the thermometer fell twenty-one degrees from sunrise to sun- set ; and twenty-six degrees in twenty-four hours. It snowed for several hours, covering the ground, or rather the rocks, several inches in depth.
JULY, 1853.
Average temperature at sunrise, 43.5 degrees.
" 12, M., 54.2 66
66
" sunset, 47.7 66
Thermometer stood highest, 23d day 66 66
66 lowest, 7th day, 29
There was no snow during the month, but plenty of frost, and some ice.
AUGUST, 1853.
Average temperature at sunrise,
44 degrees. 66
66 " 12, M., 51.5
" sunset, 47.5
Thermometer stood highest, 11th day, 62 66 66 lowest, 20th day, 30 66
On the eighth of the month there was a severe tempest, accompanied with hail, which fell to the depth of several inches on the northerly side of the mountain.
SEPTEMBER, 1853.
Average temperature at sunrise, 43.2 degrees. 25*
294
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
Average temperature at 12, M., 46.8 66
66 " sunset, 44.2
Thermometer stood highest, 6th day, 59
60
-
lowest, 12th day, 24
66
At sunset, the tenth day of this month, the thermometer stood at the freezing-point, and a snow-storm commenced during the night, which continued through the whole of the next day, and until late in the evening, covering the surface to the depth of nearly a foot. I have seldom, if ever, wit- nessed a more severe storm in the winter in any place, than the storm there so early as September 11th. It blew a per- fect hurricane at times, prostrating a telescope stand belonging to the proprietors of the Summit House, which was intended to be of sufficient strength to withstand the hardest gales.
The following comparison of these records with records of hourly thermometrical observations made upon Brooklyn Heights, Long Island, near the level of the sea, was taken - from a small circular, prepared by E. Merriam, Esq., of New York, together with the thermometrical observations made at the summit :
" It will be seen, by the annexed tabular statement, that, in the last twenty-three days of June, the greatest change during the twenty-four hours, on the summit, was twenty-one degrees ; while on Long Island, during the same term, the greatest change was thirty degrees, a difference of nine de- grees in favor of the summit. In July the greatest change on the summit was eighteen degrees, and on Long Island twenty-five degrees; making a difference in favor of the summit of seven degrees. The month of August was still more equilibrious, the greatest change on the summit being but seventeen degrees, and, on Long Island, but twenty-
295
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
two degrees; being five degrees in favor of Mount Wash- ington. September, from 1st to 15th, the period named by both records, was still more equilibrious than August ; the greatest change on the summit being thirteen degrees, and on Long Island eighteen degrees; difference in favor of the summit, five degrees. It therefore most clearly ap- pears that the temperature of the summit of Mount Wash- ington is not subject to such sudden and great changes as the temperature of Long Island.
" The highest temperature on the summit, during the hun- dred days, was sixty-six degrees, which was at noon on the 20th of June and 23d of July ; and, on Long Island, during the same time, the highest was ninety-seven degrees, and was on the twenty-first of June.
" The lowest temperature on the summit in June, was on the 24th of that month; twenty-four degrees, or eight degrees below the freezing-point; in July, on the 7th, twenty-nine de- grees ; in August, on the 20th, thirty degrees ; and in Septem- ber, to the 15th, twenty-four degrees on the 12th. On Long Island, the lowest temperature in June was forty-four de- grees on the 9th ; in July, fifty-eight degrees on the 18th ; in August, fifty-five degrees on the 29th; and of the first fourteen days in September, fifty-one degrees on the 12th.
" During the hundred days, the temperature on the summit of Mount Washington fell to and below the freezing-point on seventeen days, viz., six in June, two in July, four in August, and five in September.
" During the hundred days, earthquakes occurred on five days, viz., on the 17th and 20th of July, at Portland, Maine ; on the 28th of August, at New Madrid, Mississippi river; on the 8th of September, at New Bedford, Mass. ; and, on the 11th of September, at Biloxi, Louisiana. These
296
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
shocks of earthquake, each and all, reduced the temperature of the atmosphere upon the summit of Mount Washington as follows :
"The two shocks of earthquakes at Portland, Maine, between five and six, A. M., of the 17th of July, reduced the temperature on the summit from forty-nine to thirty-seven degrees, or within five degrees of the freezing-point; and the shock at the same place, on the afternoon of the 20th of the same month, reduced the temperature of the summit from fifty to thirty-eight degrees, or within six degrees of the freezing-point. An earthquake at New Madrid, on the Mis- sissippi river, on the 28th August, reduced the temperature at the summit from forty-seven to thirty-four degrees, or one degree below the freezing-point. On the 7th of September, the shock of an earthquake was felt at New Bedford, Mass., in the evening, which reduced the temperature at the summit from fifty-six to thirty degrees ; and a shock at Biloxi and along the lake coast, near New Orleans, on the 11th of Sep- tember, at five P. M., reduced the temperature on the summit from forty-nine to twenty-six degrees. Thus it appears that of earthquakes occurring on or east of the Mississippi river, on two days in July, one in August, and two in Sep- tember, and all that we have accounts of occurring within that district within that length of time, all produced the same results in refrigerating the temperature of the atmos- phere on the summit of Mount Washington."
THUNDER-STORMS.
On the eighth of August, at four P. M., there was a thunder- storm, attended by some hail, on the summit ; and at the ledge, about one mile below, on the eastern side, the hail fell to the depth of several inches. The thunder was heavy, and the
297
INCIDENTS IN WHITE MOUNTAIN HISTORY.
lightning vivid ; and the crash followed the flash so quickly, that it seemed difficult to distinguish any perceptible difference between the light and the sound. In the evening lightning was seen in several directions.
A thunder-storm was experienced at the summit on the 13th of August, at one, and again at six, P. M .; and on the 14th of the same month, at two P. M., was the heaviest thunder-storm Mr. Noyes had witnessed during his residence thus far on the summit. The lightning appeared the most active at the south-east ; the rain fell in torrents all day, and during the thunder-storm, at two P. M., the wind was very severe.
The sound of the thunder at the summit is peculiar, re- sembling the quick discharge of a cannon, and the sound of but short duration.
The wind blows steadily with great pressure on the sum- mit, and not in gusts as in other places. He thinks the winds are stronger than in the valleys.
COLD AND FROST.
White hoar-frost is occasionally seen on the summit of the mountain, but not often.
CLEARNESS OF THE ATMOSPHERE.
Mr. Noyes remarks, that he has never taken particular notice how many mornings in a week the sun rises clear ; but he thinks not more than three mornings in a week on an average ; and, immediately preceding the 13th of August, it had been nearly a week since they had been favored with a clear sunrise or clear sunset at the summit, the atmosphere having been foggy.
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