Notice of the White Mountains 175 
forest, stepping from tree to tree. ese groves at a 
ater elevation diminish to the altitude of a few inches, 
and are blended with moss and lichens. 
e ranged several miles in a northern direction on the 
summit of the ridge, gradually ascending, and passed over 
a:succession of eminences,that rise a few hundred feet above 
the general level, forming a waving profile. One of. these 
heights called mount Prospect, presents a smooth surface 
entangled thicket, enabling the ag to pass over the 
h 
iron in decomposing rocks, tourmaiines, garnets, and in one 
place delicate rose quartz. : 
n most parts of the summit, bare rocks alternated with 
light colored moss, lichens, tufts ef grass, beautiful white 
and purple flowers, dwarf cranberry and whortleberry bush 
es, and shrubs only four inches high. Cranberries were 
abundant, and pleasant flavored, being deprived of much of 
their acid’by frost. In the autumn, berries are uncommon- 
ly acid on this high ground. 
ot far from the southern base of Mount Washington, 
and five thousand feet above the ocean, there is a pond cov- 
ering nearly an acre. It is a source of two streams which 
tun in opposite directions. One descending west, is th 
head of the Amonoosuc, a branch of the Connecticut. Th 
other connects itself with waters flowing into the Atlantic 
through Maine. The pond is deep, and was partially envi- 
roned by banks of ice, with beds of flowers adjacent. 
We encamped at the foot of Mount Washington, on a 
Sheltered spot of the steep eastern side of the ridge, about 
a mile above the sea. Branches of a lilliputian grove of 
firs, and dry moss, formed our place of rest. We raised 
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