20 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 
and Fox-colored Sparrows, a couple of Winter Wrens, and one 
Nashville Warbler — which I shot. A dozen Chickadees, with an 
equal number of Yellow-birds and a few Golden-crowned Kinglets, 
could be seen among the branches of a low spruce near by, while 
several Red-bellied Nuthatches and a pair of Brown Creepers amused 
themselves with winding up and down its trunk. Leaving out the 
Fox Sparrows and the Nashville Warbler, this flock stands as a very 
fair example of these incongruous assemblages, several of which one 
falls in with every day at this time of year. It seems strange that 
the desire for company, always marked during the migrations, should 
induce such unlike species to collect and wander together over this 
wilderness. It must be that they have faith in the old adage that 
‘ there is strength in numbers!’ I have seen the Purple Finch in 
some of these mixed flocks; and a few Hairy and Downy Wood- 
peckers and Hermit Thrushes sometimes hang about their outskirts, 
but the latter are more commonly seen by themselves in groups of 
half a dozen or thereabouts.” 
6.— BOTANY. 
While the grand scenic effect of any region, the effect that is de- 
pendent on the genera] contour and make up of the country and its 
gross reliefs, is governed by its geology and topography; so is the 
general aspect, or physiognomy , of a region dependent upon the char- 
acter of the vegetation in which it is clothed. As, in the tropics, the 
stately Palms, the colossal arborescent Ferns, the solemn Aloes, and 
the light and feathery Mimosas contribute such striking features to 
the physiographical areas to which they severally pertain; so do the 
deciduous hardwood groves of the temperate zone, and the dark co- 
niferous forests of the north give to these regions their peculiar and 
characteristic appearance. 
The distinctive physiognomic aspect of the Adirondack Wilderness, 
the dark and sombre evergreen forests, is chiefly the consequence of 
the large development of a single genus of coniferous trees; for the 
