WHITE MOUNTAINS. A rugged group of monadnocks occupying the north central part of New Hampshire, where they cover an area of about 1300 square miles (Map: New Hampshire, J 4). They belong to the older or crystalline belt. of the Appalachian system, and form the highest of a number of more or less isolated residual portions of a former plateau which all around them has been worn clown to the pres ent Archamn peneplain of New England. a con tinuation of the Piedmont Plain of the Southern States. The White Mountains proper extend from Squaw Lake in the south to the transverse valley of the Androscoggin and Ammonoosae rivers on the north. North of that depression there is another highland region which belongs rather to the Green Mountain system of Ver mont. Several small and distant outlying monad nocks are, however. regarded as belonging to the White Mountain group, such as Mount Kearsarge and Mount Monadnock in southern New Hamp shire, and Saddleback Mountain and Mount Katandin in Maine.
The group is divided into two main portions by a grand and rugged defile known as the Crawford Notch, which gives passage to the Saco River. West of this notch the principal group is called the Franconia Mountains, whose highest point, Mount Lafayette. has an altitude of 5269 feet. The highest peaks. however, rise to the cast of the notch in the Presidential Range, so called beeause its chief summits are natiMil after Presidents of the Culled Stales. The culminating peak is Mount Washington (q.v.), 6293 feet high. Other summits with their alti tudes are Mount Ada 5S05 feet ; Mount Jefferson. 5725 feel ; Mount Clay, 5554 feet ; Boot Spur, 5520 feet; Mount Monroe, 5390 feet; and Mount Madison, 5380 feet high. The
White Mountains are composed wholly of ancient, metamorphie rocks, chiefly gt,wisses in the outskirts. with a central core of granite forming the highest portion. The soil is poor and gravelly, but the slopes and lower peaks are forest-covered, only the higher peaks raising their hare, rocky summits above the timber line. Besides the main notch there are several other deep river valleys which give the group a more rugged character than that of the average Appalachian mountain scenery: indeed. east of the Rocky Mountains the White Mountains are equaled in height and ruggedness only by the. Black and ITnaka _Mountains of North Carolina. Of the narrow waterways the hest knoW11 is the `HOMO: at Franconia Notch. The varied scenery has for over a century attracted large numbers of visitors, and the region is now easily accessible through several lines of railroad which penetrate to the heart of the mountains. There is a short rack and pinion road to the summit of .Mount Washington. One of the most celebrated natural features of the region is the "old Man of the :Nlountain," a regular human profile SO feet high formed by three out-jutting rocks on Profile Mountain. The White Mountains are noted as a resort of hay-fever patients. most of whom find more or less relief. Among the towns and resorts of the region are Lancaster, Littleton, Bethlehem, Gorham, North Conway, and Berlin. The last named is a busy industrial town, manu facturing great quantities of wood-pulp.