576 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



axe has not yet penetrated, save for the purpose of cutting lumber. This 

 dense forest occupies most of Essex county, Vt., the adjacent townships 

 of Quebec, and nearly twenty townships at the north-west angle of 

 Maine. I have tried to represent all the forest in Maine to the north- 

 west of a line from Conway to the south part of Weld. 



Several points deserve mention: — First, I have separated by another 

 color the tops of the mountains which are above trees. As some may 

 object to the correctness of this representation, I will explain. The 

 largest alpine area, or region above trees, is coincident with the summits 

 of the Mt. Washington range. It is given on a larger scale in Chapter 

 XII, Plate C. Of the other White Mountain areas, Mts. Lafayette, 

 Profile, Moosilauke, and Twin are certainly devoid of trees upon their 

 summits. Of the others, Mts. Willey, Crawford, Mote, Pequawket, 

 Chocorua, Osceola, Black, and Carter, with others not represented, are 

 bare now, but may have been covered by a stunted growth originally. 

 Possibly the Pilot and Starr King mountains, with the Stratford peaks, 

 may belong to the same category. Certainly, Kearsarge, Gunstock, 

 Sunapee, and Monadnock must be placed among those which once 

 supported a stunted growth. In the clearing of the country, many of 

 these summits became involved in the merciless destruction of the trees, 

 and nature has not been able to rehabilitate them. 



Second, oftentimes the trees are retained because they grow upon 

 mountains or high hills. Such is commonly the case all over the White 

 Mountains, much of Coos and Essex (Vt.) counties, the quartzite range 

 from Piermont to Claremont, Red hill, Ossipee, Green mountain in 

 Effingham, the Gunstock region. Moose mountain district, between 

 Carroll and Strafford counties. Saddleback in Northwood, McKoy's 

 and Fort mountain in Epsom, range from New Ipswich to New Boston, 

 Uncanoonucs, large areas along the Connecticut-Merrimack ridge, hills 

 in the south-west part of Cheshire county, etc. Third, for a similar 

 reason, one can pick out woodland areas upon the county maps from 

 tracts of land not traversed by roads. Some of the county maps, as 

 that of Cheshire, take pains to point out where forests are situated, by 

 appropriate markings. Fourth, the forest trees are disappearing rapidly 

 in some sections, and gaining in others. The presence of a new railroad 

 is the sure precursor of the disappearance of the forest. I have noticed 



