19 
numerous and sharp, are tender, being only attached to the 
epidermis of the plant; so that when the hand is covered with 
& good glove, it is easy to grasp it boldly, particularly the 
older stems. A Sazifraga, perhaps Pennsylvanica, grows on 
fallen trunks of trees in remarkable luxuriance. At last, by 
degrees, we reach the foot of the mountain, and commence 
its ascent; this is truly a work of labour, attended by no 
small difficulties, which I shall endeavour to describe, and 
thus aid you to surmount. On the little hills at the base grow 
Epilobium alpinum, and the smaller bushes already noticed. 
The constantly wet ground (for it rains here almost through- 
out the year) adds considerably to the unpleasantness of 
walking: for it yields under the traveller's feet; and if you- 
attempt to climb up by the fallen stems, or to support your- 
self ever so gently upon one of them, the whole of the mossy 
bark will frequently strip off from it, and betray you into a 
fall. Besides, the mountain is, in many places, very steep, 
and the wood almost impenetrably dense. Happy will you 
here be if you can detect a gulley, in which a current 
runs down; though the steepness of its declivities frequently 
obliges you to return. "Though the vegetation is everywhere 
much alike, yet here the trees become thinner, and the proper 
region of the Panax commences. We had even descried, 
when out at sea, these clearer spots in the dark Pine forests, 
and mistook them for broad-leaved trees. It is true that in 
such places the lofty stems of an Alder, here called the Red 
Alder, and destitute of balsamic scent, were seen singly 
scattered among the surrounding shrubs of Panax. But the 
wood which now appears again, in increased denseness, before 
us, consists particularly of a noble Thuja, called, on account 
of its agreeably scented wood, Duschnik, also Duschnoie 
derewo (scent-wood). It is the timber most valued here. The 
tree indeed occurs frequently lower down, at the foot of the 
mountain, and even to the sea: but so scattered that it is 
necessary to search for it among the more predominant 
Pine trees which conceal it from view; but here it constitutes 
almost the entire timber, and the Pine and Larch are seldom 
seen: the latter, however, not ceasing quite so soon as the 
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