228 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



the land here does not rise in the shape of a knob, being only 

 slightly elevated above the general level of the ridge. The 

 crest of the monntain varies in width from one-fourth to one- 

 half mile and is everywhere strewn with seamed and broken 

 fragments of sandstone. 



The best view, in general, of the mountain can be obtained 

 from the high watershed separating Gandy creek, a tributary 

 of Cheat, from the waters of the Potomac ; and from the summit 

 of North Fork mountain on the east. As seen from the former 

 mountain the western face appears not as a forest region, but 

 as an area of open fields with scattered boundaries of dark 

 green woodland. The sandstone boulders along the summit 

 and the irregular outcrops farther down the mountain side are 

 only faintly seen and the profuse growth of shrubbery is not 

 discernable with the naked eye at that distance. Viewed from 

 the other side, the deciduous forests, which cover the eastern 

 face of the mountain give it a strikingly different appearance 

 from the view obtained from the mountain on the west. 



On closer examination it is found that thousands of acres, 

 lying on the crest and on the side which faces toward the west, 

 and in the region about the headwaters of Seneca creek and Big 

 creek, are almost treeless and are thickly overgrown with ferns 

 and wild grasses. ' In many places the lower vegetation has 

 given way to tangled thickets of shrubs; and occasionally, in 

 these open regions, a stunted spruce, or mountain ash, or other 

 tree, has gained a foothold. This area was not always destitute 

 of trees, but was covered a hundred years ago with a valuable 

 forest of spruce. It is not, as has already been said, entirely 

 without trees at the present day ; for the fires which have swept 

 over the mountain at frequent intervals for 50 years or more 

 have left in the shady, moist depressions of the ridge, and in 

 other protected spots, a remnant of the original growth. These 

 few protected areas serve to show the character of the highest 

 forests of the state and to hold the boreal forms of plant and 

 animal life that find there the conditions under which they 

 thrive. 



The following annotated list of plants is copied from a 

 memorandum made on the summit of Spruce Knob, June 

 18, 1908: 



