426 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 



dack mass to the westward thrust of the Atlantic and the sub- 

 sequent piling up against this mass of the ridges of palaeozoic 

 sediments. Southward of this the Atlantic thrust has driven 

 these ridges back in a great bend to the westward. 



My present purpose is not to give a general geographical or 

 geological sketch of the White Mountains, but to direct atten- 

 tion to the vegetation which clothes their summits, and its 

 relation to the history of the mountains themselves. For this 

 purpose I may first shortly describe the appearances presented 

 in ascending the highest of them. Mount Washington, and 

 then turn to the special points to which these notes relate. 



In approaching Mount Washington by the Grand Trunk 

 Railway, the traveller has ascended from the valley of the St. 

 Lawrence to a height of 802 feet at the Alpine House at Gor- 

 ham. Thence, in a distance of about eight miles along the 

 bank of the Peabody River, to the Glen House, he ascends to 

 the elevation of 1,632 feet above the sea ; and it is here, or im- 

 mediately opposite the Glen House, that the actual ascent 

 begins. The distance from the Peabody River, opposite the 

 hotel, to the summit is nine miles, and in this distance we as- 

 cend 4,656 feet, the total height being 6,288 feet above the 

 sea.^ Formerly only a bridle path led up this ascent ; but now 

 access can be had to the summit by carriage roads and by rail. 



These royal roads to the summit are, however, too demo- 

 cratic for the taste of some visitors, who mourn the olden days 

 of ponies, guides and adventures; and though they give an 

 excellent view of the geological structure of the mountain, they 

 do not afford a good opportunity for the study of the alpine 

 flora, which is one of the chief attractions of Mount Washington. 

 For this reason, though I availed myself of the new road for 

 gaining a general idea of the features of the group, I determined 

 to ascend by Tuckerman's Ravine, a great chasm in the moun- 

 tain side, named in honour of the indefatigable botanist of the 



* According to Guyot, but some recent surveys make it a little higher. 



