STATES AND TERRITORIES. —NEW HAMPSHIRE.    103

would be found to be, when accurately measured, — which in his day it had not been, — over

10,000 feet high. But since that period it has been satisfactorily ascertained that it falls short
of 7000. The ascent, perilous as it has been accounted, is often effected, and generally repays
the task. But the remembrance of those dreadful avalanches, which, in one melancholy in-
stance at least,* produced havoc, and ruin, and loss of life, will long impress the imagination
seriously, and give solemnity to the wild solitudes of the mountains.

The engineer will think and calculate otherwise. And his is, in fact, the prevailing view
now taken of heights of land and bodies of water. The latter, which abound in the region of
the White Mountains, not only give animation to a landscape, and irrigate for the agriculturist
or cattle-breeder the lands in their vicinage, but, directed by the hand of Science, and duly
restrained and managed, facilitate human labor, and lay a foundation for national wealth. For
if, as one of this profession f argued, “ rivers were made to feed navigable canals," the eleva-
tions where are found the sources of the Androscoggin, Saco, Merrimac, Connecticut, and
many other streams, on whose banks and by whose waterfalls villages of manufacturers must
rise, will not be contemplated by the practical improver without deep interest.

It is a great happiness, as well as honor, for the state, that its history has been so ably and
respectably written, and at so early a period in the development of its resources. Dr. Belknap
was eminently calculated to accomplish the work he undertook. It required research and
patient labor; but he could labor and persevere, though under great embarrassment and diffi-
culty, unknown, probably, by his successors in the ministry, but requiring in his day all forti-
tude and faith. His education had providentially fitted him for his task. Brought up under
the eye of the New England historian, the Rev. Mr. Prince, whose spirit of accurate and
industrious inquiry is celebrated, he had the advantage of consulting his collections, and im-
bibed a taste for the employment. Prince followed Mather, and Mather drew from Hubbard,
and he from Winthrop and Winslow. Belknap completes the chain to our own times ; and his
history is quoted with that respect and confidence which honor his name, still further honored
by the state in being attached to a lately constituted county.

Deficiencies in his work are, indeed, noticed, particularly in articles of natural history and
natural philosophy. But, with the progress in science that has since been made, and the
facilities for observation which have since been secured, the supply of these deficiencies will
be easy. Nor can it be so difficult as it was originally to secure the evanescent tradition of
events. The late and lamented John Farmer, Esq., and his living associate,}: as well as other
members of the Historical Society, have done much to perpetuate New Hampshire history,
whether of the state or of smaller communities, or of individual men.

The state is restricted on the sea-coast, and has but one avenue to the ocean. The Piscat-
aqua presents for future improvement advantages that a perspicacious and thriving people
will not be long in ascertaining and employing. The railroad from Portsmouth to Concord,
opening an easy access to the great north and west, will give to the beautiful harbor of Ports-
mouth a foreign and domestic commerce hitherto unknown.

Though restricted on the sea-coast, and in this view not to be compared with her sister
states of New England, the State of New Hampshire is yet second among them in extent of
territory. That it may be filled with a prosperous, happy, exemplary population, who shall
enjoy and improve the rich privileges of Christian freemen, which, in the good providence of
God, now form their favored lot, and transmit them unimpaired to the latest posterity, is the
writer's fervent wish and prayer.

* The destruction of Mr. Willey's abode and family.

+ Brinley, the Duke of- Bridgewater's surveyor.

j J. B. Mooi'e, now librarian of the N. Y. Hist. Soe.