family of Mr. Abel Crawford, who lives in another direction on the banks of the Saco, were first alarmed by the flowing of the water of that river into their house, which is fifteen feet above the usual level of its bed; and by the bleating of a flock of sheep, which were swept down from a pasture an half a mile above. On that dreadful night there were more than an hundred slides from the White Mountains; mighty as they are, they seemed to be loosened from their foundations.

Imagine, then, the situation of the helpless and terrified family of Mr. Willey, at the distance of six miles from the nearest human being, and directly in the midst of these huge crumbling piles. The pass of the White Mountains is of itself terrible; the traveller makes his way under piles apparently three thousand feet high; beneath him are precipices of vast depth; the wind sends forth continually a hoarse and presageful murmur ; the trees wave darkly; and the barren parts of the mountains display huge masses of earth and stones often of many tons weight, just ready to leap into the valley. How much more terrible, then, when the whole body of the mountain is moved to and fro by a tempest; the trees, torn from their moorings, sail down their sides; huge rocks hoarsely grind against each other, and elicit long streams of fire, as they move on, overturning every thing in their course; the earth heaves from its foundations, rushing forth from its hiding place, "like a strong man armed."

It was at such a time, that desolation, fearful, terrible desolation, gathered around the little family at the Notch House. It seemed impossi-. ble that they should escape. The river Saco, which, in heavy tempests of rain, rises at the rate of five feet an hour for many miles from its source, had undoubtedly covered the road in places, or

swept it entirely away, before they had become fully aware of their perilous situation.

The family at this time consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Willey, two hired men from the town of Bartlett, viz., David Allen, aged about thirty years, and David Nicholson, in his twentieth year, and five interesting children, viz., Eliza Ann Willey, the eldest, aged twelve years; Jeremiah Lovejoy Willey, eleven years of age; Martha Glazier Willey, ten years of age; Elbridge Gerry, seven, and Sally, only three.

Beloved family! How soon were your earthly prospects destined to be fearfully and unexpectedly cut off! How much reason have those, whe contemplate your fate, to exclaim, unsearchable are the ways of Providence! Ye were lovely in life ; and like the father and son of Scripture, in death ye were not divided. There was one suffering, one grave, one hope. We may well suppose, the parents, when they saw the roaring waters gathering at their feet, and heard the mountains orumbling over their heads, resigned themselves. with cheerfulness into the hands of God. They had been taught in the principles of the Christian religion, and undoubtedly experienced its support. And yet the ties of nature are strong; and they could not be insensible to the pangs, that often thrill in a parent's heart, when they saw the condition of their young, and interesting, and suffering children.

They all perished on the night of Monday, the 25th of August; it is impossible to determine, as not one escaped, the precise moment of their death, or the amount of suffering previously endured. Their death is universally supposed to have been on the night of Monday, because, among other reasons, if the slides, which destroyed the family, had come down before dark, no doubt some, if not all the family, might have escaped, since they

move, as observed before, not faster than a person can conveniently walk.

On Tuesday, the 17th of August, a man, named Barker, going from Whitefield to Bridgetown, came through the Pass of the White Mountains. On arriving at the Notch House, he found a large slide had started from the summit, directly back of the house. Although but a few feet wide and deep, when it started, the furrow of a half mile in length, which it ploughed down the side of the mountain, grew deep and wide, until the depth varied from twenty to twenty-five feet, and the width had increased to fifteen rods; a prodigious and overwhelming mass of trees, rocks, and earth, confusedly mingled together.It is a singular circumstance, that this SLIDE, as it rolled on, in the direction of Mr. Willey's house, struck a rock of some size, only a few feet in the rear of it, separated into two portions, went round the house without injuring it, destroyed the barn, which was very near to it, and passed the road about forty rods to the south. The traveller found two horses dead under the ruins of the barn; he was able also to extricate a yoke of oxen, that were under the ruins, but not killed. On entering the house, he found it empty, but it did not occur to him, that the family were destroyed. As it was late in the afternoon, when he arrived, he remained in the house until the next morning. He then proceeded on to the lower Mr. Crawford's, (Abel's), although with much difficulty, as the road was much broken up, and the bridges swept away by the river; where he arrived about noon.

In the course of Wednesday, four or five persons had collected at the Notch house; although no positive discoveries were made, they had reason to suppose, being much better acquainted with the situation of the family than the traveller before mentioned, that they were all destroyed,

On Thursday, as many as fifty persons had assembled, including many relatives [and particular acquaintances. On that day, Mrs. Willey and the hired man, named Allen, were first found very near to each other, covered about two feet and a half with brush and timber; prostrate, with their hands extended upwards; lifeless, and much mutilated. The upper part of the head of both was struck off, probably by some large piece of timber. Mr. Willey was found soon after, and at no great distance; lifeless, and his limbs much broken. Two of the children and the other hired man were found a few days after; the three other children have never been found.The bodies were found near the bed of the Saco river; and not in the track of the Slide, which encircled the house, but of another large one which had crossed the road some rods to the south of it. But it is possible and even probable, that they perished in the slide nearest the house, and were borne by the force of the current of the river to the place, where they were discovered. The remains of the bodies found, were buried near the Notch House, but have been subsequently removed to Conway.

Among the visitants to the melancholy scene, was a brother of the deceased Mr. Willey, the Congregational minister of the town last named. I have conversed with him on this subject, and it is not necessary for those acquainted with him to add, that the most perfect reliance can be placed on his statements and opinions. In a letter written to a friend soon after the sudden and awful destruction of so many relatives, he thus feelingly and eloquently describes his visit to the place, and the reflections which occurred to him:

"After leaving Crawford's, and proceeding to the place of our destination, when we entered the opening, a hundred rods perhaps below the Notch House, which was still hidden from sight by an in

tervening ascent; we met the first great slip which had crossed our path on level ground, and in some places actually ascending 50 or 60, and I know not but a hundred rods,-so great was the force with which it had been propelled from the base of the mountain. After passing this, which consisted of large rocks, and which was impassable except by footmen, and reaching the elevation just mentioned, we came in full view of the Notch house, and all the ruins which surround it. On our right stood in lengthened prospect the precipitous mountains, which had been scored and riven by the fires and tempests of many succeeding years. On our left and in front stood those, which though once covered with a wood of pleasant green, now present their sides lacerated and torn by the convulsions of the recent storm. The plain before us appeared one continued bed of sand and rocks, with here the branches of green trees, and there peeled and shivered trunks, with old logs, which from their appearance must long have been buried beneath the mountain soil. With these, the meadow that stretches along before the Notch House, was covered, and so deep that none of the long grass, nor even the alders that grew there, are to be seen. Moving on from this site, we came upon the next large slip, which continued till it met that of another, which came down below the Notch House, and within a rod of it. Thus far it was one continued heap of ruins; and beyond the house the slips continued many rods. The one back of the house started in a direction in which it must have torn it away, had it not been arrested by a ridge of land extending back from the house to a more precipitous part of the mountain. Descending to the point of this ridge, the slip divided, and sought the valleys which lie at the base,-one part carrying away in its course the stable above the house, and the other passing immediately be