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river clear & transparent & the purest glass we crossed & recrossed many times the different colored stones on the bottom showing so beautifully through the [unclear] water. We arrived at the Crawford House at the "Notch" about one we assented Mt Willard the same day a bold precipitous cliff on one side, a wooded slope on the other a carriage road has been made winding round its side to the top 1500 feet high commanding a most charming view of the Willey valley where was the "slide" of '26 with destruction of the Willey family; a so steep as to take four horses to draw us. The next day bright & early we set out for the ascent of Mt Washington We rode horseback with pea-jackets &c. 9 miles ascending, & descending too some four separate peaks, Clinton, Pleasant, Franklin & Monroe about the pure exhilaration air, the grandiose the beauty the almost terrible magnificence of the views I cannot write, my mind & imagination are full of them If I could tell but I cannot now; after riding eighteen miles up & down the mountains we rode by stage about 30 more arriving at ten eve at Franconia Notch at Profile House saw the ' old Man' but was obliged to hasten away in order to get to the