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 Anaida melanopa, are all well-known 
* Chamberlin, E. V., “ Eevision of North American Lycosidae,” 
p. 200. 
