302 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



little doubt that the land between Graveyard (L) and Big Ponds is 

 of considerably later formation than is the ridge. 



Moseley found that a ridge must have been formed " nearly or quite 

 forty years before cedars started to grow on it." On Presque Isle the 

 sand-plain, which had accumulated outside of the western end of Long 

 Ridge immediately prior to the survey of 1866, now supports red 

 cedars up to two inches in diameter and at least fifteen years old. 

 Little plants of this species from four to five years old have in several 

 instances been found under cottonwoods having a diameter of eleven 

 or twelve inches, and thus it appears that on Presque Isle also cedars 

 may become established somewhere between thirty-five and forty years 

 after the formation of the soil. White pines appear with cottonwoods 

 but very slightly older than those under which the first cedars may ap- 

 pear, and they evidently may become established on soil not more 

 than forty years old. 



The dense group of white pines at the edge of the western end of 

 Long Ridge (see Plate XXIV) occupies ground formed probably at 

 about the same time as the older portion of the ridge, and which was 

 not particularly disturbed during the initiation of the younger portion 

 of the ridge. The largest of these pines are about fourteen inches in 

 diameter, but, having grown in an open stand, are low and bushy and 

 are probably not more than thirty-five years old," so that their age 

 corresponds quite well with the estimated age of this portion of the 

 peninsula. 



On the ridge between Cranberry and Long Ponds the dominant tree 

 in the forest is the black oak. The white pines, mainly confined to 

 the northern (older) side of the ridge, have mostly reached old age 

 and are dying out, many of them having reached a diameter of twenty- 

 six to thirty inches. One old pine was noted near Cranberry Pond 

 with a diameter, breast high, of thirty-eight inches. Taking into 

 consideration the porous sandy soil, the conditions of open stand pre- 

 vailing during the early years of the forest, and the uniform climatic 

 conditions, it appears probable that the trees are from two hundred and 

 sixty to two hundred and seventy years old, and this, in turn, would indi- 

 cate for the younger part of the ridge an age of about three hundred 

 years, correlating it with Ridge No. 3, at Cedar Point, which is also 

 apparently a compound ridge. The composition of the forest is in 



1' Spalding, V. M., and Fernow, B. E. " The White Pine." U. S. Dept. Agr. , 

 Division of Forestry, Bull. 22 : 29. 1^99. 



