658 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The other is on the eastern slope and is much nearer the top of the 

 mountain. It is at the head of a ravine or depression between two 

 ridges that extend far down the slope. Its water supply is not abundant. 

 Indeed it is scarcely visible and the surface is not level, so that the 

 presence of marshy ground and marsh plants here may at first seem 

 mysterious. The plants that grow here are mostly small and unthrifty 

 and the diminutive balsam firs that grow on three sides of this space 

 avoid its marshy area completely. The water necessary to maintain the 

 character of the place is probably supplied in part by the gradual melt- 

 ing of the snow and ice that accumulate during the winter under the 

 inassive boulders and in the crevices of the rocks above. This water 

 would be very cold and would maintain a low temperature in the soil 

 through which it percolates. The location of the place is such that the 

 direct rays of the sun can not reach it during a considerable part of the 

 afternoon. Only plants capable of enduring cold and shade could thrive 

 in such a place. During the winter a vast amount of snow accumulates, 

 for the prevailing north and west winds blow it from the higher ground and 

 pile it in this sheltered nook till it is many feet deep. It remains here in 

 the warm season longer than in any other place on the summit. In 

 1886, the summit of the mountain was visited June 10. A large part of 

 this sloping marsh was yet covered by a huge snow bank, though the 

 rest of the summit was bare. It is easy to see how the winter is pro- 

 longed and the summer shortened in such a spot as this, and such a 

 modification of the growing season must have some influence on the 

 plants of the place. Two sedges, a sundew and a rush are found here 

 that I have not seen growing elsewhere on the mountain. Every 

 botanist who visits the summit of Mt Marcy should examine these two 

 marshy spots. They are cold botanical gardens of natural formation, 

 full of interest and suggestive of thought. 



This mountain summit affords a striking object lesson in the formation 

 of soil and the development of vegetation. It is not difficult to imagine 

 that there was a time when the summit of Mt Marcy was a bare rock 

 with neither soil nor plant visible. The thin, heathy soil that now covers 

 much of the surface gives no evidence of having been brought there 

 from other sources, but on the other hand it does suggest the thought 

 that it has been made on the spot, not by the action of sudden or 

 violent agencies so much as by the action of slow and quiet in- 

 fluences continued for ages. "O ! these mosses and lichens have made 

 this soil." This was the first utterance of an esteemed and observant 



