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Rh fellowship with his neighbors, and respected by all who knew him, his latter years were in quiet contrast to the restless energy of earlier times.

The death of his wife, in 1856, seemed to mark the turning-point of his life. From that time his health gradually declined. Four years later he was stricken by a slight paralytic shock, and on the 26th day of March, 1861, he died, aged nearly 69 years. The public journals of that date paid him this just tribute of respect:

"Judge Stark was a man remarkable for his industry, energy, and correct business habits; and as the result of nearly half a century of public and private business has left behind a reputation for reliability and strict integrity second to no man in the state."

The Merrimack river canals were blotted out by the railroads. The opening of the railroad to Lowell in 1835, to Nashua in 1838, and to Concord in 1842 were successive steps of destruction to the whole system of river navigation, and culminated in a total abandonment of the canals soon after the Concord Railroad was put in operation.

A hardy race of boatmen, pilots, and

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raftsmen—men of uncommon strength and endurance, skilful in their calling but unfamiliar with other labor—were suddenly and permanently thrown out of employment. The wooden dams and locks went to decay, the embankments were cut and ploughed down, and successive spring freshets have hurled their icy batteries against the stone abutments and lock walls until they are nearly obliterated, and the next generation will know not of them.