36 ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 



natural home, they form in the White Mountains a peculiar 

 island colony on a bare plateau which lies about 5,000 feet 

 above sea-level, and out of which project a series of conical 

 peaks. These constitute what is known as the Presidential 

 Range, the highest being Mount Washington (6,293 feet) 

 (Fig. 4). The plateau on which this remarkable relict fauna 

 and flora lives may be reached by the railroad that now takes 

 the traveller to the top of Mount Washington or by following a 

 very rough trail leading to it from the Pass called " Crawford's 

 Notch " through the dense forest. It was the latter route I 

 chose to gain the wind-swept ridge. As we approach the 

 ridge, the fine spruce, balsam and paper birches are gradually 

 replaced by diversified conifers, which become increasingly 

 stunted by exposure in the more elevated parts of the range. 

 At last, on emerging from the remnants of the forest, we 

 have gained not only a wide expanse of open country, but we 

 can imagine ourselves transplanted all of a sudden to the 

 Arctic Regions. Here and there may be gathered specimens 

 of Rhododendron lapponicum and Salix phylicifolia, growing 

 among Arenaria groenlandica, Phleum alpinum, Diapensia 

 lapponica, Campanula rotundifolia, Gentiana nivalis and 

 hosts of others, few of which can be studied elsewhere nearer 

 than Labrador. 



Moreover, as Dr. Scudder remarked, no State in the Union 

 presents so striking an assemblage of animal life as New 

 Hampshire, where the White Mountains form so conspicuous 

 a feature. Swiftly running over the bare rocks of the high 

 plateau we notice the black spider, Pardosa groenlandica, 

 which, though occurring also in the Rocky Mountains, ,is 

 otherwise confined to the White Mountains, Labrador and 

 Greenland.* The grasshopper, Pezzotettix glacialis, is, I 

 believe, peculiar to Mount Washington, while another species, 

 Pezzotettix borealis, is a near relative of the North European 

 Pezzotettix frigida. Fluttering among the arctic vegetation, 

 we notice the butterfly Oeneis semidea, which has never been 

 taken nearer than Labrador, while the moths Dasychira rossii, 

 Arctia quenselii and Anarta melanopa, are all well-known 



* Chamberlin, E. V., " Eevision of North American Lycosidae," 

 p. 200. 



