1894
June 16
(No 2)
Mt. Moosilauke, N.H.
100 ft. below the crest of the ridge, at least on the eastern slope
they are fifteen to twenty feet high and the ground beneath
is often sufficiently open to afford very good walking.
The trees which compose the heavy forest that covers the
lower half of the mountain are of the kinds which one
finds among the White Mountains and in Northern Maine ie
firs, spruces, hemlocks, yellow & paper birches, beeches, sugar maples,
etc. The spruces are the finest that I have ever seen anywhere
and it is evident that no lumber fiend has ever caused
death and destruction among them. Indeed I saw no
indication that a single tree had ever been cut down
along the path of the carriage road. Some of the yellow
birches were also of great size - at least four feet in
diameter at the base. I noticed nothing peculiar in any
way about the composition of this forest. There was not,
I think, a single kind of tree which is not found
at Umbagog. The arbor vitae, however, is missing here.
The bird fauna of the mountain itself is evidently
strictly Canadian. Near the summit and for about
1000 ft. below it we found only Bicknell's Thrushes, Juncos
(only a few), White-throated Sparrows, Black-poll Warblers,
Yellow-rumped Warblers, & Pine Linnets (two). Swifts were flying
over the top & sides of the mountain. The Bicknell's Thrushes,
Black-polls and Yellow-rumps were not seen below about 3700 ft.
All the others extended down to Merrill's. We saw two
Bluebirds above the 4th mile post at an elevation of
probably about 3500 ft. One of them was perched on a
stub, warbling.
  Below 3800 ft. we noted, in addition to some of the
birds just named, Swainson's & Hermit (one only) thrushes,
a Canada Nuthatch, a Kinglet (satrapa) two [?], several