GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 
16 
upon these elevated summits, for, in the language of our State Bota- 
nist, Mr. Charles H. Peck, “ the frequent rains, the investing clouds, 
and the low temperature which retards evaporation, all conspire to 
produce that prevalence of moisture which imitates the condition of 
the marshes.”* On the open summit of Mt. Marcy (altitude 5,344 
feet, or 1,628 metres) Mr. Peck found Cassandra calycidata , Ledum 
latifolium , Kalmia glauca, Habenaria dilatata, Veratrum viride , Ca- 
rex irrigua, and Calamagrostis Canadensis — all swamp plants. There 
are no trees here to protect them from the sun, for they grow upon 
the open summit “above timber line ” — which is about 4,800-4,900 feet 
(1,463.04—1,493.52 metres) above tide-level. 
Many of the valleys are occupied by extensive balsam and tama- 
rack swamps, which are always carpeted with dense mats of wet 
Sphagnum , into which one sinks half a foot or more and yet rarely 
leaves a trail — so perfectly does the spongy mass resume its former 
shape. These places are the homes of the Spruce Grouse or Canada 
Partridge, the Blue Yellow-backed Warbler that builds its pensile 
nest of the gray tamarack lichen (Usned), the Canada Fly-catching 
Warbler, and several other species. 
Most of the mountains are covered with a tolerably dense growth 
of coniferous trees, but there are quite a number whose summits have 
been laid bare by tornadoes. These devastating winds every now 
and then uncover a mountain so effectually that not only the trees and 
undershrubs, but even the soil itself, and all life upon it, are hurled 
together into the valley below — forming vast and lasting “ windfalls ” 
to bar the path of inquisitive man. 
Fire, also, too frequently overruns and lays waste tracts of large 
extent, that, for years afterwards, constitute marked features in the 
make-up of the country, and exert a decided influence upon the 
minor local distribution of life over its surface. The charred stubs 
of the larger trees long remain as favorite haunts for several species 
* Report of Adirondack Survey, Albany, 1880, pp. 405-6. 
