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WITH PROFESSOR GUYOT ON MOUNTS
WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN ,
IN 1857
By S. HASTINGS GRANT
[Extracted from Appcdachia, Vol. Xl.i No. 8.]

&1
0

APPALACHIA, VOL. XI.

PROFESSOR ARNOLD GUYOT.
From a photograph taken in 1867

With Professor Guyot on Mounts Washington and
Carrigain in 1857.
By S. Hastings Grant.
Eead July 6, 1906.
In the summer of the year 1857 I attended the annual meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
held that year at Montreal, Canada, and there heard the late
Professor Arnold Guyot of Princeton University read his inter
esting paper on " White Mountain Measurements." Learning
Note. — Professor Charles E. Fay in his very interesting paper on "Mount
Carrig-ain," read before the Appalachian Club as early as July 9, 1879 (vide
Appalachia, II. Ill), referring" to its nomenclature, says : " It is generally under
stood that the mountain derives its rich, full-sounding name from Philip Carri
gain, Esq. (died in Concord, N. H., in 1842, 9Bt. 70), sometime Secretary of State
of New Hampshire, and under whose care the State map of 1816 was prepared.
This was a notable work of its day, for which, as well as on account of his mani
fest love for, and pride in, the mountains of his native State, he well merits this
memorial. I have been unable to discover by whom the name was bestowed, but
find it first in Colton's Atlas, edition of 1857." This, it will be noted, is the year
in which this ascent was made. There is probably more than coincidence in such
synchronism, but it does not appear whether Professor Guyot's attention was called
to the peak through the reference in the atlas, or whether his ascent brought the
name to the knowledge of geographers.
Plate XXXI. is from «, photograph of this period, kindly furnished by Pro
fessor A. Guyot Cameron, of Princeton, New Jersey.
In this connection the interesting fact should be noted that the original explorer
of Mt. Carrigain was himself a distinguished representative of the Appalachian
Club, in the person of their Honorary Member, Arnold Guyot, LL. D.

230 WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN.
that it was his immediate purpose to ascend Mount Carrigain,
the then unexplored central peak of that Appalachian group,
for the purpose of determining its elevation by barometric
measurement and of ascertaining its relation to other heights
which it commands, I arranged to accompany him and further
as best I could his proposed undertaking.
Singularly, it is within a few months only, and near the close
of half a century after the event, that I find myself in posses
sion of the unofficial details of that noteworthy expedition, and
am able to communicate them in the twofold form of an Itin
erary, and of Letters written while en route, as follow.
ITINERARY.
1857, Aug. 21, Friday. Arrived from Quebec with Prof. Guyot at
Gorham, N. H., at 9.30 A. M. ; met Herbert Gray Torrey ; bought
stout boots, hatchet and crackers, and left for Glen House, ar
riving there at 12 M. Weather unsettled ; did not ascend ; met
Kent, Wurz, Harrison and Runkle ; after tea bowled, learned
how to take observations on barometer, and packed baggage to go
around.
An-j;. 22, Saturday. Started at 7.45 A. M. on foot for the summit, five
of us, and arrived at 11.45 A. M. ; left at 2 p. m., the party sepa
rating. Prof. Guyot and others go to Crawford's, I return alone
to Glen House, arriving at 5 P. M.
Aug. 23, Sunday. No church ; met Prof, and Mrs. Botta.
Aug. 24, Monday. Started with Torrey and others for the summit at
7.45 A. m., arriving at 11.45 in a drenching rain ; took observa
tions at the half-way house and again at summit ; concluded to
stay all night, thirteen ' of us in all, among them Boardman, who
was preparing a map with the aid of an odometer, who made it
8| miles to Crawford's and 7 miles, 11 rods to Glen House ; had
hard work to keep warm, it being 38° at the supper-table and 25°
during the night ; wind blowing a hurricane.
Aug. 25, Tuesday. Rose at 5 A. M. to see driving clouds before sun-
1 The following are the names of our party : W. 0. Grover, Boston (came in a
conveyance) ; Herbert Gray Torrey, New York (rode with him) ; C. L. Wood-
worth, Amherst, Mass. (walked up ahead of us) ; Merrick Lyon, Providence, R. I. ;
John H. Bufford, Boston ; Harvey Boardman, Griswold, Ct. ; Clarence Buel, Troy,
N. Y. ; 0. P. Buel, Troy, N. Y. ; J. H. Prentiss, Bangor, Me. ; Alonzo F. Lewis,
Con way, N. H. ; George H. Blake, Portland, Me. ; Charles S. James, Lewiaburg,
Pa. ; S. Hastings Grant, New York.

WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN. 231
rise ; rocks covered with ice ; sunrise a glorious spectacle ; after
breakfast the company passed a vote of thanks to our host, John
H. Spaulding of Lancaster, N. H, and to Mrs. Angeline A. Hall
of East Burke, Vt., and each got the signatures of the others. I
started with Torrey at 10.30 A. m. for Crawford's and soon met
Prof's. Guyot and Kerr on their way up ; we kept on and com
menced observations, arriving at Crawford's at 5 P. m. ; met
C. N. Bovee; Prof, Guyot returned at 7.30.
Aug. 26, Wednesday. After ascending Mount Willard with Prof.
Guyot before breakfast we proceeded with our guide (Wm.
Hatch) in the stage as far as Lawrence's on our way to ascend
Mount Carrigain ; left Lawrence's at 10.45 A. M. ; dined at
2 p. m., and reached base of mountain and last water at 5. P. M.,
where we camped, 2560 feet above sea-level ; 1 wrote note while
camp was building ; made tea, and read aloud to Prof. Guyot
while he drank his ; offered prayer and retired about 9 o'clock.
Aug. 27, Thursday. Breakfasted, and started at 6 a.m.; arrived at
summit, 4720 feet above sea-level,1 at 10 A. m. ; left summit at
11.15 A. m. ; reached camp at 2 p. m. ; out of woods at 6 p. M. ;
took Lawrence's one horse wagon for two or three miles when we
met Gibbs' team and arrived at the hotel at 9.30 p. m. ; met Prof.
Holton ; glorious tea.
Aug. 28, Friday. Prof. Guyot left for Franconia at 8 A. M., and I
for Conway at 11 A. M. with Holton, leaving Torrey; I on out
side in drenching rain ; arrived at Conway about 6 p. M.
Aug. 29, Saturday. Left Conway at 6.40 A. m. in stage for Centre
Harbor with Holton and others, arriving there at 12.50 P. M. ;
left there at 1.40 P. M., sailing the whole length of the Lake
(Winnipiseogee) and reached Boston at 8 P. m.
LETTERS WRITTEN WHILE EN ROUTE.
Summit House, Mt. Washington,
Six o'clock a. m., Aug. 25, 1857.
Dear Friend, — Here I am this frosty morning- at the height of
my ambition. Would that I could give some fitting account of the
past twenty-four hours. I may as well tell you that on Saturday
-morning five of us started from the Glen House, at the base of Mt.
Washington, about half-past seven o'clock, to ascend the peak on foot.
We arrived there in four hours, having been passed on the way by a
cavalcade of fifteen persons, amongst whom were some ladies. These
1 [As estimated on the ground.]

232 WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN.
had a very picturesque effect, winding over the rocks, but I did not
envy them their horses. At the top we numbered forty or more,
some having ascended from the other side. Nearly all the way the
landscape was obscured by clouds, so that few views were to be ob
tained. At the top we were in the midst of such a dense cloud that
we could scarcely see the distance of ten feet. After a hearty dinner
and a rest we separated about two o'clock, my companions all going
down the opposite side of the mountain, and I returning the way I
came, to spend the Sabbath with my brother,1 who had charge of one
of the barometers. The Sabbath was passed very quietly, there being
no arrivals or departures of coaches, which gave me great satisfaction.
Then, too, we had a good, spacious room, which was the more prized
as the hotel was crowded with more than two hundred persons. This
day of rest enabled me to recover from the fatigues of Saturday.
Very few have the courage to walk up at all, and still fewer to go up
and down on foot the same day ; probably not more than ten or twelve
a week from each side, although I found it not remarkably difficult.
(If my writing is hard to decipher, it is because it is still harder to
execute it — the thermometer being at 36° and my fingers stiff with
holding the thermometer out in the wind — where it is at 33^°.)
The understanding [with Prof. Guyot] was that Torrey and myself
should ascend again on Monday, and that Prof. Guyot would come
up from the other side and meet us, if there was a prospect of a fine
day. On Monday morning everything was so promising that we
started off, full of expectation, and ascended more than halfway very
pleasantly, having, like Pilgrim, many views by the way. Soon after
that, however, just as the cavalcade again wound in sight, the rain
began to come, and come in such earnest that I was drenched so
thoroughly that I could not get dry and warm before I retired to
rest that night. We arrived at the Summit House at 11.30 A. m.,
intending to rest for a couple of hours, and after dinner (oh ! what
an important matter this dinner becomes after a morning spent in
exercise and cold) to descend on the opposite side to the Crawford
House. (5.30 o'clock, p. m. I am now at the Crawford House, but
must go on a little farther from the point at which I left off.) But
the storm was so driving that it seemed like rashness to venture
off again in it ; so we (and some of the number very unwillingly)
came to the conclusion to pass the night there. The inducement to
do so was the greater because I did not wish to ascend twice without-
1 My foster-brother, Herbert Gray Torrey, now (1907) U. S. Assayer, New York
City.

WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN. 233
obtaining any view from the top, and the wind then blowing with
such fury was not favorable for after clearness. (I have to stop
every few minutes to go to another room and take a note of the
barometer, which must be my excuse for bad writing, etc., now ; don't
you like my little asides?) At two o'clock all those who were deter
mined to go down the mountain (only those on horseback) started,
and while we pitied them exceedingly, we could not but congratulate
ourselves on the improved chances of getting near the two stoves.
We afterwards heard from two persons who came in near evening in
an almost exhausted condition that some of the ladies had to get off
and walk part of the way. They looked ready to perish, but women
can and will go through anything that men can, — sometimes, it seems
to me, through much more. Around these stoves we poor, sorry
individuals crowded, endeavoring to dry and warm ourselves as best
we might, but fuel being very precious, our degree of comfort was
only comparative, although our host, a good, strapping Vermonter of
over six feet, and a heart in proportion, passed his word that we
should be made comfortable, and so far as it was in his power we
were made so ; but the temperature of the room was but nine de
grees above freezing, and that of our supper-table but six. The
pelting storm without was most pitiful, and when each hour I went
out to take the range of the thermometer, as was necessary, I would
come back all benumbed ; and yet we thought this was nothing, less
than nothing, to Kane's and Fremont's exposures. We were a merry
company of thirteen, every one determined to be as hilarious as
he could, and there were all sorts of characters represented there.
At tea our host, after saying that it was the worst storm they had
known this season, mentioned that it was on just such a night, about
two years before, that Miss Lizzie Bourne perished, not forty rods
from the house, from the exposure, and I feel assured that any one
would have died had they been out all this night. (Here comes the
mounted party, thirty-five in number, back from their visit to Mt.
Washington.) Well, soon after eight o'clock, thinking that bed would
be the most comfortable place for them, most retired, and finally I
followed, scarcely expecting to be warm enough to sleep, but the pro
vision of blankets was such that I soon forgot myself, only to awake
once or twice in the night to hear the howling of the winds, a, weird
but pleasing music. I little thought there was any likelihood of our
having any view in the morning. About five o'clock I was awoke by
one of the attendants coming to my stateroom (more like that than
anything else), and telling me to get ready and see a sunrise. I

234 WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN.
doubted it very much, but he opened the door,1 and I shall never for
get the appearance presented. First would rush past a rosy-coloured
cloud, suggesting to me a glimpse of pandemonium from its furious,
driving, rolling character ; then all would be blackness. I sprang to
the floor in an instant, and soon such a sight presented itself as I
never imagined or could describe. The sunrise from Mt. Rigi was the
nearest to it that I ever saw, but that was tame in comparison. There

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were cascades and torrents of clouds below us ; I do not exaggerate.
I despaired at the time of conveying any idea of what was passing
around. No painter could depict it, for motion was one cardinal fea
ture. It was almost impossible to stem the icy wind sufficiently to go
a few feet ; the rocks were covered with heavy hoar frost, the mer
cury having been at 25° during the night, and now standing at 31°.
But out of doors we must be, and were for nearly five hours, for we
could see from the ocean on one side to the Green Mts. on the other,
with Conway, Lancaster, and other places in the landscape. But to
show how fickle Nature is in the dispensing of her favors, I will state
that we had not left half an hour before the top was covered with
clouds that did not leave it all day, — and all those who ascended to
day, confident of being repaid, had to return without being satisfied
excepting by what they saw on the way, which was enough for any one.
1 Marked in the picture, — a very faithful one, by the way.
WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN. 235
Herbert and I left at ten o'clock this morning and footed it down,
meeting Prof. Guyot on his way up. We are now pleasantly located
for the night at the old "Crawford House," now "Gibbs' Hotel," but
which should be called " The Notch House," as it is within a short
walking distance of the White Mountain Notch, as distinguished from
the Franconia Notch. . . . Just before tea I was telling Prof. Guyot
where my room was. " Oh ! " says he, " that 's where they put the
single gentlemen. You must leave the barometer and bring a lady
with you to get good rooms." ... Ah ! He is one of the loveliest of
men for any one to have for a companion, and one of the few I could
understand a lady falling in love with. Wednesday, Aug. 26, 1857.
Our Camping Ground on Mt. Carrigain, 2560 ft. above sea.
Here at five o'clock in the afternoon I am resting a little, after six
hours of about the hardest tramping in the woods that I was ever
connected with. At half-past five o'clock this A. M. I arose and started
off with Prof. Guyot to climb a small mountain (Mt. Willard), from
which a view is to be had second only to that of the Twin Lakes and
Prospect Hill.1 On the way we met first a lady and gentleman de
scending on horseback (they having taken an earlier start than we),
and then a carriage load of the same. Arriving at the top we gave a
short time to the view, took its height, and got back for a well-appre
ciated breakfast. Immediately after, we took the stage, having pro
vided ourselves with a guide and provisions for the night's sojourn on
the mountain, which, from there being no path up this untraversed
and unexplored mountain, was quite necessary. The guide has already
erected a kind of shanty, covered with bark, and Prof. Guyot is now
cutting some brush for us to sleep on, and it behooves me to be build
ing the fire soon. I am nearly made crazy by the black-flies of which
your brother and sister spoke. It is my first experience with them,
and they are our only annoyance. Thursday, 6.30 o'clock a.m.
We are now some ways on our upward climb. Last evening as
soon as the fire was made the black-flies disappeared as if by magic.
We set a tin teapot on the fire and soon had a glorious drink of that
social beverage. Prof. Guyot is as much a lover of the infused herb
as is your friend ; so while he drank his (we had but one tumbler) I
read to him some incidents of White Mountain history. Afterwards
I took my tea and then prepared for retiring. Our guide had chopped
1 Litchfield County, Conn.

236 WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN.
down two or three dead trees for fuel, a spring was not far off, and
as we spread our blankets, the stars were shining down brightly, while
the moon could be dimly seen through the thick trees. We had
crossed a fresh bear track on our way through a swampy place,
and at the house where we made our last halt, preparatory to ascend
ing, the farmer had lost a sheep two nights before, which the bear,
whose track measured nine inches by five, had dragged quite a ways.
After a prayer had been put up for our safety and that of our friends,
we gave ourselves up to sleep. Now I am enjoying a splendid pros
pect. As many as twenty-five or thirty peaks can be seen from my
sitting place. We have still fourteen or fifteen hundred feet to climb
and no pathway at all. Over fallen trees, through thick undergrowth
we pass, and all the time climbing, climbing. But the weather is so
beautiful we enjoy it much, and were it not for these awful flies, which
will not allow me to write one word in peace, I should be quite happy.
Walking a few steps has given me a full view of Mount Washington
in all its grandeur, and an ocean of peaks around. The aroma of our
guide's pipe comes to me, while near by the Professor is taking a
sketch. The print of a deer's hoofs is plainly discernible in the moss,
and he must almost have been frightened by our coming. Our peak
seems almost three miles away, and to this we must ascend and get
back to the road before three o'clock.

Ten o'clock A. M. Summit of Mt. Carrigain.
We 've arrived at last ! Hail ! Hail ! No water within three miles
for us.

Gibbs' Hotel, Friday morning, Aug. 28, '57.
Yesterday, and day before, while halting in the woods, I pencilled
you some rough notes of our far rougher travels, — which I almost
fear you will not decipher, and if you do not you need not feel very
anxious. Now that the expedition is all over I can look back upon
it with pleasure as a great feat accomplished ; but so far as my
memory serves me, I never went through more, in two days, of toil
and exertion ; and it seems to me that no kind of ridino-, walkino-, or
sleeping place will hereafter be esteemed otherwise than agreeable
and easy by comparison. Not only was our way through pathless
forests, but so far as I can learn, ours were the first footsteps that
ever reached the summit of Mt. Carrigain. Before coming here I
had heard that no one had ever ascended it, but it seemed quite

WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN. 237
unlikely ; but by inquiry of those living near and others most likely
to know, this seems to be the case, and I can now readily believe it,
for no one could go up and down it the same day. On the summit I
picked a little sprig of green which I enclose. It is all I have to show
excepting scratched face and hands, bruised feet, and well-torn clothes.
I don't begrudge the pains taken in the least. Quite the contrary.
And then the outlook was beyond anything yet seen. We were in
the centre of the White Mountains, and in one direction could see the
Mount Washington range ; in another, the Franconia range ; in another,
the Sandwich range ; and in the fourth, the Chocorua group ; with
valleys, lakes, and a multitude of lesser peaks in the midst. Are n't
you tired of all this ? I am sure you are, for I am tired of telling it
you, and will therefore close by saying that I leave within an hour
for Conway, thence by lake Winnipiseogee to Boston, where I expect
to spend the Sabbath, arriving in New York Tuesday morning, grate
ful for all I have been permitted to experience and enjoy.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.
Arnold Henri Guyot, or Arnold Guyot, as the name of this
distinguished scientist is universally known, was born September 28,
1807, at Boudevilliers, near Neuchatel, Switzerland, to which latter
place, after nine years of study at Berlin and Paris, with much varied
experience elsewhere, Guyot returned in 1839 with the degree of
Ph. D., to become Professor of History and Physical Geography at the
Neuchatel " Academy," in connection with Louis Agassiz and other
distinguished instructors. This professorship Guyot held for nine
years, during which period, besides lecturing and instructing, he did all
he could of outside work, meteorological, barometric, hydrographic,
orographic, and glacial, thereby qualifying himself the better for his
approaching field of labor here.
On leaving Switzerland for America in 1848, which he did at the
instance of Agassiz, who had come here two years earlier and was
already installed Professor of Zoology and Geology at Harvard, Guyot
renewed his devotion to Physical Geography by delivering courses of
lectures on that and cognate subjects, first in French before the Lowell
Institute, Boston, and later in English before a number of our leading
educational institutions. His Lowell lectures formed the basis of his
illuminating work entitled " Earth and Man," that was received with
great favor both here and abroad.

238 WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN.
In 1854 he was called to the chair of Physical Geography and Ge
ology at Princeton, a foundation created and endowed for him, and
one that he filled with great distinction for thirty years.
It is, however, by the masterly work undertaken and energetically
prosecuted by him in exploring the Appalachian system of this con
tinent that Arnold Guyot will be best known and ever remembered
by members of the Appalachian Mountain Club. His labors there are
fitly though very briefly sketched in his own words in the opening of
a paper " On the Topography of the Catskill Mountains," contributed
by him and presented by President Niles at the sixteenth Corporate
Meeting of the Club, December 10, 1879, wherein he says : —
It is well known to most of the members of the Appalachian Club that
ever since 1849 I have devoted the greater part of my summer vacations to
the investigation of the physical structure of the Appalachian system, and
to the measurement of its altitudes from New Hampshire to Georgia. The
larger number of the results obtained, however, still await a full publication,
which has thus far been prevented from the want of the necessary leisure
for a final revision. A map of the culminating region of the Appalachian
system in North Carolina and Georgia, in which I have located over 500
measured altitudes, is still in manuscript : a large number of carefully
determined heights in the Adirondack region, with indications of the hypso
metric distribution of the forest trees and characteristic plants, is in the
same condition.
As to the accuracy of his work Professor Dana says : —
His thousands of measurements in the Alps had prepared him for ac
curate and thorough work here. As evidence of exactness, his barometric
measurement of Mt. Washington in 1851 gave for the height 6291 feet ;
the measurements by spirit-level made by N. A. Goodwin, civil engineer, in
1852, gave 6285 feet, and a similar levelling under the direction of the Coast
Survey in 1853 gave 6293 feet. So again the Black Dome of North Caro
lina, made 6707 feet by him, was measured with a spirit-level by Major J. C.
Turner, civil engineer, setting out from Guyot's line of departure, and the
height made 6711 feet.
It is to be remarked that he had early rejected the barometers in
use here, and established what is known as the Smithsonian barometer,
which in the summer of 1861 he took abroad and compared with those
of Kew, Brussels, Berlin, and Geneva, and indirectly of Paris, so that
European and American standards are believed to correspond within
the narrow limit of one or two thousandths of an inch.
Arnold Guyot died February 8, 1884, at Princeton, N. J. He was
greatly favored in having for his biographer Professor James D. Dana
of Yale University, who has appreciatively embodied the fascinating

WITH GUYOT ON WASHINGTON AND CARRIGAIN. 239
details of Guyot's personal history and scientific work in the memorial
of him that he read before the National Academy of Sciences at Wash
ington, April 21, 1886, which was published in Vol. II. of their Bio
graphical Memoirs, and also in the Report of the Smithsonian Insti
tution for the year 1887. In 1867 he married a daughter of the late
Governor Haines of New Jersey, who still survives him.
S. H. G.

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