the gazettes of the latter. The village is well built, and every thing indicated good order and general prosperity.

Precisely at 4 A. M. of Wednesday, I sat down with one of my companions, to an excellent breakfast, which was rendered more hearty from the reflection that we might fare worse before the day was over; and at five we were all on our horses. We rode eastward, through a country chiefly forested, twelve or fifteen miles, to a scattered hamlet in the north part of Glover, called Keene-Corner, and settled by emigrants from Keene, in New Hampshire. As we began to descend from the high grounds towards the hamlet, we first saw the valley of Barton river; originally reseinbling the valleys of other streamlets of a similar size, but, at the time of the efflux of the lake, excavated into a broad, deep channel, with perpendicular banks; in the bottom of which the stream had worked out for itself a somewhat deeper bed. This river, which is here too small for a millstream, issues from Mud Lake, four miles south from KeeneCorner; and, after running northward from this hamlet about seven miles to the village of Barton, turns somewhat to the north-west, flows about fifteen miles, and is discharged into Lake Memphremagog. I was most agreeably surprized, as I descended the hills which overlook the valley of the river, to find the ravages made by the flood so distinctly visible, after the lapse of thirteen years. Our first view of the desolation presented a gulley, or excavation in the earth, extending up and down the river as far as its course was visible, and varying in breadth from twenty to forty rods, and in depth from twenty to forty feet. This immense channel, except what had been previously worn away by the gradual attrition of the streamlet, had all been hollowed out at once by the violence of the torrent. Its sides were precipices of earth or sand, every where indicating the avulsion of the mass which had been adjacent, and exhibiting in frequent succession, large rocks laid bare, and often jutting out into the gulley; and, near the top, the uncovered roots of trees, which, having been partially undermined by the water, still nodded over the precipice. The bottom of this channel, as far as we could see, was covered with larger and smaller rocks and stones, and in some places with extensive deposits of sand. The sight of this vast excavation only heightened our conceptions of the effects of the flood, and satisfied us that, in our visit to the

bed of the lake whose waters had occasioned it, we should not be disappointed.

Having engaged a dinner at a sorry substitute for an inn, we turned to the south, and ascended Barton River, about four miles. In order to see the ravages of the flood more perfectly, we left the usual path on the left bank of the gulley, and rode all the way in its bed, over ground regularly ascending, until we came upon the northern shore of Mud Lake. This lake was originally the source of Barton River, and lay directly in the path along which the waters of Long Lake flowed, at the time of its evacuation. Here, of necessity, we left the gulley, and rode along the eastern shore of Mud Lake, until we had passed it; when, resuming our route in the bed of the gulley, we found the ground ascending very rapidly, until we entered the bed of the discharged lake. Having rode about half its length, we tied our horses, and pursued our way on foot, through the middle of its bed to the southern end. Here, ascending the bank to the original water-level, we could survey the whole bed of the lake, with its shores and surrounding scenery.

From my own personal observation, and from minute inquiries made of several individuals who were concerned in letting off the water, and of several gentlemen who were present at the legal investigation which it occasioned, I possessed myself of the following facts.

Long Lake, before it was drained, was a beautiful sheet of water, about a mile and a half in length from north to south, and, where largest, three-fourths of a mile in breadth. For about five hundred yards from the southern extremity, the lake was very narrow; and, to this distance, its water was shoal, having been nowhere more than ten or twelve feet deep. Here there is a sudden and steep descent in its bed, to the depth of 100 feet. Here also the lake opened rapidly to the breadth of half a mile, and then more gradually to three-fourths of a mile. The depth also increased, in the broadest part, to 150 feet, and did not diminish until within a small distance of the northern extremity, where the lake was about half a mile wide.

The eastern and western shores were bold, and rose immediately from the surface into hills of moderate height. These hills gradually subsided into plains, as they converged near the two ends of the lake, to form the northern and southern shores.

The lake was supplied with water by a small rivulet, which still continues to flow in on its western side. At the southern extremity, over ground scarcely descending, and through a channel of probably not more than a yard in width, the water of the lake flowed out in a dull streamlet toward the south-west, and between trees, shrubs, and rocks, worked out for itself a sluggish passage. This was the original outlet of the lake, and the remotest head-water of the river La Moelle, a tributary of Lake Champlain. The northern shore was generally low, rising not more than five or six feet above the surface of the lake, and consisted of a narrow belt of sand, succeeded by a bank of light sandy earth. The country all around the lake, as well as along its outlet at the southern extremity, was one unbroken forest.

The distance from the northern end of Long Lake to the southern end of Mud Lake, was about 200 rods. There was no original communication between them; the waters of the former, as we have already seen, having been discharged towards the south, and those of the latter towards the north. The ground between the two was covered with a thick forest, and formed a very rapid declivity from Long Lake towards Mud Lake. The low bank of sandy earth which formed the northern boundary of Long Lake, continued of an uniform height for about five rods from the shore, where, becoming more firm and solid, it descended so rapidly towards Mud Lake, that the perpendicular descent between the two, in the distance of 200 rods, was at least 200 feet.

The bottom of Long Lake, near the western shore, was rocky; at the southern extremity, beneath the shoal water, it was a mound of sandy earth, and throughout the great body of the lake was either sand or mud. The mud was black, light and loose; when wet, flowing like water, and when dry,{of a blue colour, and light as a cork. The descent, at the northern shore, was bold and rapid; and on the bottom, near the shore, was spread out a calcareous petrifaction, or deposit, called by one of the workmen a hard-pan, of the thickness generally of two or three inches, though occasionally of six or eight. I saw numerous fragments of it; and one, which I brought home, was an inch and a half thick, and had the solidity and hardness of limestone. Its upper surface was of a light yellowish-brown colour, and had the

smoothness of a stalactite; while the lower was rough and uneven, embodying pebbles, sand, weeds, and other coarse substances, on which the calcareous deposit, at its first commencement, had settled. The fracture, to use the sprightly language of my principal informant, one of the individuals concerned in letting off the water, resembled frozen gravel.

This hard-pan reached out from the shore into the lake, for a breadth of five or six rods, resting on the bottom; and was found along the whole northern extremity. Being rather feebly and doubtfully sustained by the mass of sand underneath, on which it lay as on an inclined plane, it supported the superincumbent water, and formed the only solid barrier which prohibited the contents of Long Lake from descending into Mud Lake.

Mud Lake was originally three-fourths of a mile in length from north to south, and half a mile in breadth. Its shores, both on the western and eastern sides, soon rose into high grounds; between which, and over the bed of Mud Lake, the waters of Long Lake, if let out northward, must necessarily pass. The bottom of Mud Lake was a mass of thick deep mud, tough and gritty, of a rusty dark blue, many feet in thickness; and, when dry, becoming of a pale blue, and of a hard solid texture. This lake was originally deep, though less so than the other. Barton River, its outlet, descended very rapidly through a rough uneven country, over a bed of sand and pebbles, for about five miles, and then more gradually, and with a margin of meadow on each hand, for six miles, to the village in Barton. All this distance, with the exception of a few .cleared spots at Keene-Corner, and in Barton, the country was, in 1810, a thick forest, on both sides of the stream, to its very banks. At Keene-Corner, four miles from Mud Lake, stood a grist-mill and a saw-mill, both owned by a Mr Wilson; but the stream was so small that, in the dry season, the supply of water was insufficient for the mills. About seven miles lower down, it unites with a still larger stream from the right, the outlet of Belle Pond, a beautiful lake in Barton. Two miles further down was another grist-mill, owned by a Mr Blodget; and three 'miles lower, were the mills of a Mr Enos.

The insufficient supply of water at Wilson's mills, was a serious inconvenience to the inhabitants of Keene-Corner, as well

as to the proprietor himself. The comparative elevation of the water in the two lakes, and the nature of the ground between them, had long been known at the hamlet, and had frequently provoked discussions of the question, Whether it was not practicable to let out a part of the water of Long Lake into Mud Lake, and thus furnish an additional supply to the mills on Barton River? These discussions always ended in an affirmative decision; and the disposition to test its correctness regularly gaining strength, as the practicability and importance of the measure were more and more developed, it was at length resolved, in out-of-door convocation, that the thing should be done; and the 6th of June 1810, the day of the general election of New Hampshire, which, out of respect to their parent state, they had usually observed as a holiday, was selected for the purpose.

On the morning of that day, about 100 individuals from Glover, Barton, and several of the adjacent towns, assembled at Keene-Corner, with their shovels and spades, their hoes and axes, their crowbars and pick-axes, and their canteens, and voted that they would march to Long Lake, and there have “ a regular Election Scrape." 29 * They arrived at the scene of action about ten o'clock; and, having selected the spot which seemed most feasible, began to cut down the trees, and to dig a channel for the water across the belt of sandy earth which constituted the northern boundary of the lake. At three o'clock, a trench five feet wide, five or six rods in length, and seven or eight feet deep, was completed. It began within a yard of the water, and reached to the brow of the declivity, towards Mud Lake; yet gradually descended in its line of direction; so that, when the small remaining mass of sand in the trench should be removed, they might see the waters of the lake flow out without interruption, to increase the mill-stream of the village.

At length, the command being given that all hands should leave the trench, the mass of sand left in it, with a portion of that under the hard-pan, were removed; and as large a piece of the hard-pan as their pick-axes would reach, was broken off. The water issued at first through the chasm thus made, with a moderate degree of force; but, to the great surprize of the work

Scrape, in this sense, is a colloquial Americanism, and denotes a frolic.