THE SPRUCE, ETC. 283 



this section of the country it holds almost exclusive 

 possession of the wildernesses and the great summits 

 whicli rise from 4,000 to 4,500 feet above sea level. 

 In traveling through the valleys of the Gale, Am- 

 monoosuc, Pemigewasset, Ellis, and Saco Rivers, one 

 may trace on the mountain walls the line where the 

 maples and birches stop and the dark spruces be- 

 gin ; their somber black -green color clothes the 

 greater hills with something hke majestic solemnity 

 — an aspect which the poet Whittier must have had 

 in mind (although he does not allude to the spruce 

 tree) when he wrote this : 



By maple orchards, belts of pine, 



And larches climbing darkly 

 The mountain slopes, and, over all, 



The great peaks rising starkly. 



These lines, however, perfectly express the impres- 

 sion which the spruce-clad mountain wall produces 

 on the mind of one who passes through the valleys 

 of the "White Mountains. 



In the Sandwich country, the scene of Whittier's 

 Among the Hills, the somber coloring covers the 

 northern lulls from Sandwich Dome to Mount Cho- 

 corua, a distance of fifteen miles. 



The red spruce in mountain fastnesses is the most 

 picturesque tree imaginable ; it rivals the cypress of 

 the Southern swamps. In the dense forests which 



