MOUNTAINS IN NEW-HAMPSHIRE.    573

from Lake Winnipiseogee to mere mountain ponds, and mountains
beneath you, gleam misty and wide. At the west the Green
Mountains in Vermont are distinctly seen ; at the south and south-
west are Mount Monadnock and Kearsarge iu full view, while the
intervening space is filled up with every variety of landscape.”

The ascent of Mount Washington is by two routes—one is from
Gorham, on the north side of the mountains to the Glen House,
eight miles distant, and thence by carriage road, eight miles, to the
summit. The road is a chartered corporation, and was commenced
in 1855, and finished and opened for travel in the season of 1861.
The whole work is a complete triumph of engineering skill, and is
the best finished road in the whole mountain region. The other
route is at the western base of the mountain, by rail. This rail-
road was commenced in 1866, under the superintendence of Sylves-
ter Marsh, the inventor of this novel plan, and completed in about
three years. It is needless in this place, to attempt to give any
description of the mechanism of this road, and other machinery
connected therewith, and it is enough to say that every precaution
is used to make it safe to ascend and descend. The road is nearly
three miles long and ascends 3,628 feet in going that distance, start-
ing from a point 2,669 feet above tide water. The whole expense,
including equipment, is not far from $ 200,000. A ride on this
road up to the summit, is worth the whole expense of a trip to the
mountains. On the summit of Mount Washington has been erect-
ed a large and convenient hotel, which answers also for a depot.
This house has all the comforts of hotels in the city, and can ac-
commodate about one hundred guests, over night. There is a tel-
egraph office, with wires coming from different quarters of the
country, and the house, in the summer, has become quite an “ ex-
change,” parties arriving over the various routes, can despatch
by telegraph (over 6000 feet above the ocean) to their places of bus-
iness hundreds of miles away. One object of guests staying over
night is to obtain an evening and morning vipWof the setting and
the rising sun, the beauty and grandeur of smich is far beyond any
human attempt to describe.    /

These mountains are now reached by railroad from all sections
of the country, and at all points near their base. On the north
side, at Gorham, via Grand Trunk Railroad, coming from the north-
western States, Canada, and city of Montreal, or the other way,
from Portland and other points in Maine. On the south and south-