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in a little hollow along the side of Mt. Clinton. Here we found a 
delightful little spring known as the Mizpah Spring, surrounded 
by an extensive bog filled with large and showy fern-mosses and 
knights-plume moss, and interspersed with straggling but abun- 
dant specimens of Ribes glandulosum, which differs pro- 
nouncedly from ordinary wild currants in that it is practically 
a trailing or, at least, a procumbent shrub. At the spring (alti- 
tude 3800 ft.) we found the first of the series of Appalachian 
Mountain Club’s huts. A few feet away I was delighted to find 
several beautiful specimens of the tall white bog-orchis (Lim- 
norchis dilatata). 
After leaving the spring we ascended an almost perpendic- 
ular slope for 475 feet, to the very topmost point of Mt. Clin- 
ton (altitude 4275 ft.). At the beginning of this, our steepest as- 
cent, we found ourselves still in primarily deciduous woods, but 
in a very short time passed on into the zone of Abies balsamea, 
Picea rubens, and Picea mariana. The balsam fir with its deli- 
cious aromatic tang was particularly welcome, and its char- 
acteristically arranged cones (which were in erect clusters at the 
tips of the branches) of conspicuous pinkish-red were extremely 
interesting. 
As we went on up and up and up these evergreens became 
lower and lower in stature and always more straggling, while 
the common birches, viburnums, and maples of the base dis- 
appeared altogether. After we had ascended about 300 feet we 
found ourselves in the clouds which surrounded us as a dense, 
white, penetrating mist, which rendered the climbing exceed- 
ingly difficult and our clothes exceedingly wet. During this climb 
we passed out of the Alleghanian life-zone and entered the 
Canadian. As we neared the top of Clinton we advanced above 
the level of the clouds and were again in bright sunshine. 
The top of Mt. Clinton was a veritable paradise for the bot- 
anist. We were far above the timber line now and the wind blew 
With unceasing violence, sweeping over the top of Clinton and 
almost lifting us off our feet. It is little wonder that timber or 
any variety of tall plant growth is unable to exist there. Still, 
the entire top was covered by a matting of lichens and mosses, 
the tallest and densest growth of this kind that I have ever seen. 
In walking, one’s feet sank into this carpet of vegetation as into 
Some magnificent Persian carpet. 
