HISTORY OF VERMONT. 2D 



are far below the freezing point in summer, 

 their phenomena and productions are very much 

 affected by the degree of cold, to which they 

 are constantly exposed. 



The tops of our rhountains are generally 

 composed of rocks, covered over with moss. 

 The trees appear to be very aged, but they are 

 of a small size ; and all of them are of the spe- 

 cies called evergreens ; pine, spruce, hemlock 

 and fir ; intermixed with shrubs and bushes. 

 The powers of vegetation regularly diminish, as 

 we approach the summit of an high mountain ; 

 the trees degenerate in their dimensions, and 

 frequently terminate in a shrubbery of spruce 

 and hemlock, two or three feet high ; whose 

 branches are so interwoven and knit together, 

 as to prevent our passing between them. Trees 

 thus diminished, with shrubs and vines bearing 

 different berries, and a species of grass called 

 winter grass, mixed with the moss of the rocks, 

 are all the vegetable productions, which nature 

 brings forth on the tops of our highest moun- 

 tains. 



The sides of our mountains are generally 

 very irregulai', and rough ; and some of tliem 

 appear to have large apertirres, or openings a- 

 mong the rocks. Among these subterraneous 

 passages, some caverns of a considerable extent 

 have been found. One of these is at Claixn- 

 don, on the southeast side of a mountain, in the 



made in Europe, is 787Z feet above the level of the sea. From the greater 

 coldness of the American climate, the poLntof perpetual congelation in a 

 similar American latitude, cannot exceed, but must rather fail something 

 short of this. The altitude therefore of the white mountains, cannot be 

 estimated as more than 7800 feet above the level of the ocean ; and this 

 ts probably the altitude of the highest mountains in the eastern states. 



D 



