cannot be duplicated at any point known to the writer. 



In its rock and soil composition Mount Desert offers 

 a most attractive possibility. Much of the Island consists 

 of granite rocks, with the consequent acid soils that these 

 give rise to ; but the soils derived from some of the meta- 

 morphic series, slates and shales, are, judging from the 

 native vegetation, of a basic or even limy character, and 

 many of the swamps are covered not with the heath 

 thickets of acid bogs but with the characteristic grasses 

 and sedges of sweet areas. 



A number of the Island plants, indeed, sometimes of 

 rock habitats, sometimes of swamps, suggest themselves 

 at once as species which, in their wide range, show a 

 strong preference for sweet or limy habitats : the Shrubby 

 Cinquefoil, Potentilla fruticosa; the Showy Lady's Slip- 

 per, Cypripedium hirsutum; the Hemlock Parsley, Con- 

 ioselinum chinense, are instances. 



These features alone are sufficient to indicate the 

 remarkable possibilities for the future if a tract like 

 Mount Desert, unique upon our coast in physical config- 

 uration as in beauty, can be preserved from the destruc- 

 tion of its natural charm by the judicious guarding of 

 what it now possesses and the re-introduction of what it 

 has lost, or lost presumably, both plants and animals. 



The fame of the island as the playground, habitual or 

 occasional of a vast and highly intelligent portion of 

 our population, also renders it remarkably appropriate 

 for such a natural reservation; and should such a reser- 

 vation be established there, with due emphasis laid upon 

 the maintenance or redevelopment of natural and indi- 

 genous conditions, its influence upon the intelligent 

 peoples of America will be indeed far-reaching. For it 

 is inconceivable that lovers of nature could enjoy such 

 an ideal area, with its unmolested wild flowers, ferns, 

 birds and harmless animals and with the full beauty of 

 nature everywhere displayed, without desiring and pro- 

 viding a similar blessing — according to the varied 



7 



