16 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 



feature which peculiarly fits it to be the habitat of an as- 

 tonishing diversity of life forms, both plant and animal. 



Facing the ocean, there stretches a precipitous mountain 

 range nearly twelve miles in length, containing jseven peaks 

 of over a thousand feet, the highest, Green Mountain, rising 

 to above fifteen hundred. These hills are heavily wooded 

 with coniferous trees, although their summits are crowned 

 with bare and ice-scarred granite, from whence was derived 

 the picturesque name given to the island by its first dis- 

 coverer, Champlain — "L'isle des Monts Deserts" — The 

 Isle of Desert Mountains. 



Under the various hills, in deep glacier-furrowed ravines, 

 lie numerous beautiful lakes and ponds, while between two 

 of the steep mountain-sides the narrow fjord of Somes Sound 

 draws in the ocean for seven miles, to the island's center. 

 To the north of this wilderness of lake and mountain lies a 

 more gently rolling country of forest, field, and little streams; 

 broken, here and there, by great heaths and marshes, and 

 surrounded by a shore full of striking cliffs and deeply re- 

 cessed coves. 



With such a notable diversity of natural scenery, of land 

 and ocean climate, within so small an area, it is scarcely 

 necessary to point out to any naturalist the inevitable pres- 

 ence of a corresponding variety of organic life; while, for the 

 bird lover, the Island can be no less than a veritable garden 

 of delight. 



From the surrounding ocean, with its numerous bays, 

 come numberless sea birds. Gulls, Ducks, Petrels, Cormor- 

 ants, Grebes, Loons, and Mergansers. Many more water- 

 fowl inhabit the wild forest-bordered lakes among the hills. 

 Snipe, Sandpiper, and Plover gather on the beaches and 

 pebbly shores. Herons fish in the salt marshes and the 

 shallow waters of inlets at ebb tide. The sunny meadows 

 are peopled with the different Blackbirds and Sparrows. 

 The open woods and glades throng with Robins, Vireos, Fly 

 catchers and the more southern Warblers. 



The densely forested hillsides shelter the north-ranging 

 Warblers, Purple Finches, White-throated Sparrows, Her- 



