SECTION FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO POUND GAP. rs 
would naturally be first found there. I do not say that this 
is the veason why they are found on the south, and not found 
on the north sides of the mountains, for they would, if con- 
ditions were’ suitable, soon work over from one side to the 
other. I merely say that, given the conditions here present, 
the pines would certainly be first found on the south sides of 
mountains. 
It must be said that there are some tolerably strong argu- 
ments against the view I have here advanced as to the distri- 
bution of the pines, and one of these is, that in the very 
section of Kentucky where the pines are found, they’are by 
no means uniformly distributed, and oftentimes miles of low 
hills will intervene without a single pine, and a comparatively 
solitary high hill will have several on its summit. I can only 
suggest, in explanation of this, that the high hill-tops are the 
ones which would most catch the wind-carried seeds, and that, 
should they be dropped on the low intervening hills, they 
would probably not grow, unless the formation happened to 
be one of the dry shales. As I have previously said, my 
observations go to show that the pines in this part of the 
State (as also in the Pine Mountains further southwest) grow 
‘only on high hill or mountain tops, or else on dry shales, like 
the Devonian or some of the Waverly shales. 
Inasmuch as the hemlock is always found within compara- 
tively few feet, in barometric height, above docal drainage, and 
is therefore usually in the hollows and ravines, rather than on 
the hills, we must look to the water for its distribution. Such 
seeds as the wind might pick up and lodge on mountain peaks 
certainly would not grow. To appreciate the peculiar distri- 
bution of hemlock, its characteristics must be understood. 
These I have studied minutely, so far as their growth in Ken- 
tucky is concerned, and am convinced— 
1. That they do not grow, on the average, at a greater 
height than fifty feet above the local drainage. 
2. That, nevertheless they require a very dry soil, the 
more rocky and precipitous, usually, the better. These two 
conditions can be satisfied only by small mountain streams, 
j 185 
