their vicinity, but returned without anything more than a knowledge of
their romantic scenery and the fine facilities they afforded for game.
Since then, they have been frequented by hunters and men of science, and
within a number of years they have become one of the most fashionable
places of summer resort in the United States.

[Illustration: FRANCONIA MOUNTAINS, FROM THORNTON.]

The White Mountain plateau is approached by travellers from four
directions, namely: from the east by the Grand Trunk, Eastern, and
Ogdensburg Railroads; from the south by Lake Winnipiseogee and the
Pemigewassett rivers; from the south-west by way of Connecticut River
and White Mountain Railroad at Littleton, and from the north by the
Grand Trunk at Northumberland. The approach is grand from all sides, and
the mountain combinations picturesque and beautiful. From five to six
thousand feet above the plain, these mountains rise presenting every
variety of mountain scenery, slopes, ravines, precipices, towering
cliffs, and overhanging summits.

To the south of the mountains and nestling among the foot hills, lies
Lake Winnipiseogee--"Pleasant Water in a High Place," or "The Smile of
the Great Spirit," as the aborigines termed it, with its surface broken
by hundreds of islands: one, they say, for every day of the calendar
year; and its shores the delight of artists in search of the
picturesque, as well as of the sojourner after pleasure. Its waters
smile eternally pleasant, and the visitor will not find the fountain of
perpetual youth of the swart old navigator a fable; for here he will
regain lost youth and strength in the contemplation of scenes as
beautiful as poets' dreams. O! Lake Winnipiseogee, we recall the sails
across thy bright waters with delight, and long to see thy rippling tide