THE WILDWOODS 37 



Had we extended our journey northward, far into the 

 Dominion of Canada, we should have first passed through 

 long stretches of pineries and woods of spruce, and finally 

 landed in openings of birch, willow, and alder, which fade 

 away gradually into the treeless wastes of the ever-frozen 

 North. 



WOODS AND THE MOUNTAINS 



We have all read and heard, and some of us have had 

 the opportunity to witness, that the climate grows colder 

 as we ascend a mountain ; so that if the mountain is very 

 high it may bear ice and snow all through summer, though 

 it be located beneath the tropical sun of Mexico or Peru. 



From what we have learned concerning the influence 

 of cold on the forest cover we should at once infer that 

 the forest differs at different points from below upward 

 and that it becomes more and more simple in its compo- 

 sition ; more and more stunted toward the top of any high 

 mountain range or peak ; and also that the forests of 

 higher mountains, like those of the colder northern dis- 

 tricts of our country, are composed most generally of 

 coniferous trees. 



A few excursions will test and verify these conclusions. 



If we start on the Raquette River in the Adirondack 

 Mountains of New York to go up to the top of Mount 

 Seward, we are at first about fifteen hundred feet above 

 sea level, and in the midst of a sandy old white pine 



