Suddenly some six hundred feet below the summit of Cardigan we came out
from the stunted under-growth and found ourselves traversing the smooth
granite mass which constitutes the entire mountain top. The rock is full
of minute particles of mica, which glitter and flash in the sun like
"gems of purest ray serene." A brisk wind was blowing and the rarefied
air infused us with new strength to make the remaining ascent.
Some distance from each other, half way up the rounded cone, lie several
huge boulders poised in the bed of what was once a glacial drift. They
are of entirely different character from the rock on Cardigan and
without doubt came from much farther north. Whence, and when? The course
of the drift is also very plainly marked from northeast to southwest.
From the character of the rock there is reason to believe that when God
said, "Let the dry land appear," Mount Cardigan was the first to show
his head and came from the very bowels of the earth. Hitchcock's
"Geology of New Hampshire" states that these White Mountains appeared
above the face of the waters as islands at a very early period of the
world's history.
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