74 East and West 
Europe, loving the commonplace precincts 
of Tannersville and of the railroad but find- 
ing no lodgment on the cloistered slopes of 
Parnassus. 
On these ranges the woods are as dense, if 
not so extensive, as in the Adirondacks, but 
are essentially different from the latter in 
lacking the innumerable lakes, ponds, water- 
ways, and swamps. It is not an aqueous 
wilderness, though as in the Adirondacks the 
mountain summits present swamp conditions 
and attract swamp plants, a curious fact due 
entirely to the presence of clouds and the in- 
creased precipitation. Thus on the summit 
of High Peak you may see false hellebore and 
poison sumac, gold thread and an abundance 
of sphagnum, while the stunted balsams are 
further evidence of humid conditions. 
The higher regions are clothed with spruce 
and with some hemlock. Birch is the pre- 
vailing genus and beech is common, but 
the glory of these woods is in the splendid 
sugar maples scattered over the slopes and 
looming large in their twilight haunts. Ven- 
erable trees, their massive columnar trunks 
gnarled and shaggy with age, they seem to 
preside with that dignity inseparable from a 
great tree over the lesser growth of beech 
