Peat-Mosses 



The building of bog-mosses is not confined to depressions 

 filled with water. Strange as it may seem, it is true, that they 

 can climb the slopes of the surrounding shore and extend the 

 marsh up a hill. The hill-climbing character of the moss is due 

 to its habit of absorbing water like a sponge. If one recall the 

 moss habit of making the new growth upon the dead and water- 

 soaked remains of the old plants, he will readily understand 

 that it is as simple for the moss plants to grow up a slope, if it is 

 not too steep, as it is for them to grow on a level. 



The value of the bog-mosses as peat producers in the belt 

 over which the great continental glacier swept is greater than 

 that of any water-loving plant. It will be remembered that the 

 great glacier of the Ice Age moved in North America from the 

 northwest in a southeasterly direction as far down as the northern 

 part of New Jersey, and as the climate changed and the great ice 

 sheet receded by melting backwards to its source, it left in its 

 wake numerous small lakes, ranging from a few feet to several 

 miles in diameter. It is in these lakes, when not over a mile in 

 width, that the peat-mosses have found most favourable quarters 

 for their work, for the smaller sheets of water are less liable to be 

 lashed into waves by the wind. 



Examples of this method of marsh building are found all over 

 the world. Professor H. W. Brewer reports finding peat-mosses 

 building marshes on Lassen's Peak, California, at an altitude of 

 5,000 feet. He found Sphagnum fimbriatum on the Sierra Nevada 

 Chain, California, at an altitude of 11,000 feet; and Sphagnum 

 mendocinum forming swamps near King River, California, at an 

 altitude of from 800 to 900 feet. Examples may be found on the 

 Palisades of the Hudson and on the summits of Mount Marcyand 

 the Shawangunk Mountains in New York, or on the Pocono 

 Mountains, Pennsylvania. 



In the pass between Mount Marcy and the highest point in 

 New York State, and Mount Skylight, near the camp and about 

 half a mile from the summits of the mountains, lies "Lake Tear 

 of the Clouds." To-day it is a mere bog-hole, neither large nor 

 deep, but when named by Verplanck Colvin not very many years 

 ago, its clear waters nestling in a rocky basin suggested to him 

 the pretty name. At that time a fringe of peat-moss wreathed 

 its shores and was reflected from it as from a mirror. To-day it 

 is surrounded by boggy shores and is dotted with little islands of 



1 1 1 



