84 THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 



vations must sometimes hurl these feeble flutterers 

 far down toward the wooded valleys, as I have 

 myself seeu ; and there is no doubt that they can 

 find their food plant all through the lower alpine 

 reo'ion : nevertheless, the contrast between the occa- 

 sional and unwilling visitor below and the swarms 

 which in their season crowd the upper plateaus is 

 very marked and significant. The localities where 

 I have found them most abundant are the succes- 

 sive sedgy plateaus which flank the upper part of 

 the carriage road on Mt. Washington, and espe- 

 cially the broad area between the sixth and seventh 

 mile-posts, where the road takes a side turn, and 

 which I call Semidea Plateau. So, too, one may 

 find an aspiring Brenthis above the limits of the 

 lower alpine region ; but it is very rarely seen there, 

 and the violets on which the caterpillar probably 

 feeds will scarcely ever be found in any abundance 

 within the vipper alpine area. It seems fairly 

 deducible from these facts that even the limited area 

 of the barren heights above the White Mountain 

 forests is divisible into two districts, each of which 

 claims a butterfly as its own ; so that in ascending 

 Mt. Washington, we pass, as it were, from New 

 Hampshire to northern Labrador ; for on leaving 

 the New Hampshire forests and forest fauna behind 



