Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/424

 414 CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE

After having penetrated, upon one of our loftier New England ranges, the forests of oak, maple, &c., we find ourselves in the region of birches, which, more or less intermingled with pires, continue to surround us, until we have reached a great height ; their trunks frequently of a large size, yet growing in so loose a soil that, when grasped by the hands, they may some- times be made to swing from side to side with the greatest ease. Mean- time the dense, spongy carpet of moss heaves beneath our feet, and, if we examine this moss, especially in steep situations, we shall find that the roots of the trees ramify its substance, often for long distances ; and if we look more closely, we shall see that it conceals numberless little cisterns of water, formed in the hollows of the rocks, from which moisture is abun- dantly supplied for the nourishment both of the mosses and of the trees which they sustain. In our latitude, at a height of less than five thousand feet, we find ourselves at the limit of forest trees, and, near this limit, we frequently arrive at a dense narrow belt of dwarf firs, only a few feet in height, which seem as if formed in regimental line; their branches declin- ing, and so rigid, that it is nearly impossible to penetrate their ranks, for, while the depending limbs readily permit one to slip down between the trunks, to extricate one's self is not so easy, as the tattered clothing of the traveller frequently testifies. Above this point we find only stunted bushes, intermingled with slender trunks, blasted and bleached, the skele- tons of a race long since perished, and here we frequently reach a terrace, enough depressed to hold here and there little lakes, on whose margins grow various rare plants, mostly unknown to the regions below. Soon we arrive at a pyramid composed of broken rocks, piled one upon another, and this forms the peak, which first strikes the eye from a distance, when in looking toward one of our granite ranges one descries a series of broad, rounded bases, for the most part surmounted by cones more or less sharp- ened. As we scramble with difficulty over this rude pile of rocks, all verdure disappears ; we are surrounded only by desolation. At last the top is reached, and suddenly in this region of mists the foot treads upon dense carpets formed by the snow-white blossoms of different species of Arenarias, whose flowers are much larger than those of the insignificant kinds which grow upon the plains. Very interesting is it to observe these changes in vegetation. The higher one climbs, the more arctic will be the character of the flora, especially as regards genera; and in the journey of a morning, the traveller, were he to judge of the distance he has measured by the plants which he meets with, will seem to have traversed several degrees of latitude.

'■* " No poisonous shrub of sickly hue." Poisonous plants do not inhabit the higher mountain regions. In alpine flowers, moreover, the colors are more often simple than mi.ted, and the white and tlie rosaceous seem to

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