SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF MT. DESERT ISLAND 



Barrington Moore, Editor of Ecology 



Mount Desert Island exhibits features which are of un- 

 usual significance to the student of natural history. 



The island is what is known to scientists as a tension 

 point or meeting point between different plant and animal 

 habitats. Such places have a peculiar fascination for the 

 scientist in that they afford unusual opportunities for study- 

 ing, among other things, the relation of plants and animals 

 to their environment, matters of much practical importance 

 in farming, in forestry, in horticulture and many other 

 pursuits. Here it is primarily a meeting of north and south, 

 in which the north seems to be the present master, but the 

 south strongly represented. 



From the forestry point of view I can state that on no 

 area of this size have I seen growing together forests repre- 

 senting such different conditions and consequently with such 

 different requirements. Our knowledge of the requirements 

 of different forests for soil, moisture, climate, etc. is very 

 inadequate, and the diversity which we have on Mt. Deser': 

 island offers unusual opportunity for adding to this all im- 

 portant knowledge. 



The forests of spruce and fir such as grow on Otter Cliffs, 

 along a large part of the southern shore of the island, in the 

 Gorge between Dry and Cadillac Mts. and on many other 

 parts of the island are truly northern, like the forests of 

 Canada, of the northern part of this state, and of the 

 Adirondacks above 2500 feet elevation. 



The white pine forests of central New England are 

 represented at Faun Pond, on Bear Brook Hill along the 

 main road just south of Bar Harbor and at several other 

 places. 



And yet we find also on Kebo Mountain along the shore 

 drive and elsewhere, forests of pitch pine similar to those 

 growing in New Jersey and Long Island. The forests of Mt. 

 Desert Island, therefore, represent a stretch of country ex- 

 tending from Labrador to southern New Jersey. 



The vegetation in general appears to be even more re- 

 markable than the forests. Rand has found on the island 

 230 species of plants common to the arctic. The crow-berry, 

 Empetrum nigrum, grows here at sea level, while inland at 

 this altitude and even farther north it is found only on the 

 summits of the high mountains above timber line under truly 

 arctic alpine conditions. And still the southern sweet fern 

 grows here in actual contact with these boreal plants. 



100 



