72 THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 



densely wooded region with high mountains on 

 either side sloping down to the narrow valley, with 

 considerable clearings in the river bottom, where 

 cultivated patches, pastures, swampy tracts, hill- 

 sides overgrown with shrubbery, and damp and 

 shaded forest roads are to be met with, nearly all 

 the conditions for abundant insect-life are to be 

 found at their best. More than this, a wagon 

 road, eight miles in length, winding half way 

 through the primeval forest, where it forms a 

 broad lane which the butterflies covet, half way 

 over the rough ledges and sedgy plateaus of the 

 treeless upper region of our highest mountain, 

 where flowers are blooming all through the season 

 to captivate the tired traveler, — this road to the 

 highest summit affords a ready means of learning 

 at what altitude the valley species ascend, and 

 what kinds inhabit the inhospitable higher levels of 

 the mountains. 



Let us speak first of those which belong in the 

 valleys, where the vegetation is so profuse and di- 

 versified ; and restrict our remarks principally to 

 those which are commonest here, and met with 

 more rarely elsewhere, — those which have, so far 

 as New England is concerned, their maximum 

 development in this district. 



