J 5 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



Upon these elevated summits, for, in the language of our State Bota- 

 nist, Mr. Charles H. Peck, " the frequent rains, the investing clouds, 

 and the low temperature which retards evaporation, all conspire to 

 produce that prevalence of moisture which imitates the condition of 

 the marshes."* On the open summit of Mt. Marcy (altitude 6,344 

 feet, or 1,628 metres) Mr. Peck found Cassandra calyculata, Ledum 

 latifoliuin, Kabnia glauca , Habenaria dilatata, Verah'uni viride. Ca- 

 re x irrigiia, and Calamagrostis Canadensis — all swamp plants. There 

 are no trees here to protect them from the sun, for they grow upon 

 the open summit ''above timber liiie " — which is about 4,800-4,900 feet 

 (1,463.04-1,493.52 metres) above tide-level. 



Many of the valleys are occupied by extensive balsam and tama- 

 rack swamps, which are always carpeted with dense mats of wet 

 Sphagnnm. into which one sinks half a foot or more and yet rarely 

 leaves a trail — so perfectly does the spongy mass resume its former 

 shape. These places are the homes of the Spruce Grouse or Canada 

 Partridge, the Blue Yellow-backed Warbler that builds its pensile 

 nest of the gray tamarack lichen {^Usnea).\\\^ Canada Fly-catching 

 Warbler, and several other species. 



Most of the mountains are covered with a tolerably dense growth 

 of coniferous trees, but there are quite a number whose summits have 

 been laid bare by tornadoes. These devastating winds every now 

 and then uncover a mountain so effectually that not only the trees and 

 undershrubs, but even the soil itself, and all life upon it, are hurled 

 together into the valley below — forming vast and lasting *' windfalls " 

 to bar the path of inquisitive man. 



Fire, also, too frequently overnms and lays waste tracts of large 

 extent, that, for years afterwards, constitute marked features in the 

 make-up of the country, and exert a decided influence upon the 

 minor local distribution of life over its surface. The charred stubs 

 of the larger trees long remain as favorite haunts for several species 



♦Report of Adirondack Survey, Albany, iSSo, pp. 405-6. 



