334 
solid granite of which the mountain is composed. The base of 
the mountain is very irregular in shape, and must be at least 
twenty-five miles in circumference. On the northeast side is a 
pond which is doubtless the highest body of water in Maine. 
This is beautifully situated in a wooded hollow, and receives a 
little rivulet which plunges down a precipice a hundred feet or 
more, as near as I could judge from a distance. It has only been 
visited in the winter by men on snow-shoes. This pond is the 
headwaters of the Wissattaquoik stream, the principal tributary 
of the east branch of the Penobscot river. 
The mountain seems to be composed of red granite. The 
top is broken into stones of all sizes, and the highest points are 
simply piles of these stones, which are covered with a yellow and 
a black lichen. There is some drift material, which would indi- 
cate that the mountain was covered with ice during the glacial 
period. 
The base and sides are heavily wooded principally with spruce 
(Picea Canadensis), some fir (Abies balsamea), and yellow birch 
(Betula lutea), with a few other trees scattered among them. 
These grow smaller and smaller as they approach the top, and 
the spruce gradually gives way to fir, which finally becomes 
scrub. This is three or four feet high, usually dead at the top, 
and growing so closely together as to be almost impenetrable. A 
little farther up it dwindles away to a foot in height, so that one 
easily walks over the tops, sometimes on the interlaced boughs 
without touching the ground. A fir only three feet high was six 
inches in diameter, and a section showed over one hundred rings, 
which tells the story of its slow growth. 
The other vegetation is principally alpine. All plants were 
low; three or four inches being as high as they could rear their 
heads. Everything hugged the ground as if its very life de- 
pended on it. Some plants not more than an inch high were in 
bloom, the flowers appearing to come out of the ground. Care¥ 
rigida, var. Bigelovit, Juncus trifidus, and Deschampsia caespitosa 
were abundant, and covered some flat places, making them look 
quite like a lawn. 
There were three other plants common all over the top of the 
mountain, in which I was interested gastronomically, as well as 
ee ey ee ee 
Bens ae re ee 
