region of similar topography which unites them with the Green Mountains of Vermont, the highest summit of which, Mount Mansfield, attains an elevation of 4,364 feet above the sea. To the east of the Green Mountains are situated the still higher and more rugged White Mountains of New Hampshire, which culminate in Mount Washington. This widely known and greatly admired peak has an elevation of 6,293 feet, and, next to Mount Mitchell in the southern Appalachians, is the highest mountain on the eastern side of the continent to the south of the newly discovered group of peaks near Hudson Strait. Associated with Mount Washington are at least 15 peaks, each of which is over 5,000 feet high, and a still larger number of lesser summits which exceed 4,000 feet in elevation above the sea. The remarkable natural beauties of the Green and White Mountains, the ease with which they can be reached by means of railroads, and the numerous summer hotels, and hospitable farmhouses interspersed among them, make this, the most mountainous portion of New England, a favourite region for summer rest and recreation. The Green and White Mountains are nearly parallel north and south ranges, from 30 to 60 miles apart, and separated by a tract of lower but hilly country with a generally southern slope, where many streams unite to form the southward-flowing Connecticut River.
The Adirondack Mountains, in northeastern New York, are situated some 25 miles to the west of the Green Mountains, and separated from them by another tract of hilly country similar to the one dividing the mountains of Vermont from those of New Hampshire. In this space lies the irregular sheet of water over 100 miles long known as Lake Champlain. This beautiful lake discharges northward through Richelieu River to the St. Lawrence. In the same tract of hills, but to the southward of Lake Champlain and tributary to it, lies the smaller but still more charming Lake George.
The Adirondacks are rudely circular in ground plan, and measure from 60 to 70 miles from east to west, and about 100 miles from north to south. The entire area,
known to the early settlers of New York State as the North Woods, is rugged and most pleasingly diversified. Its leading charms are the large number of dark, densely forested summits, the many beautiful lakes and clear, sparkling streams. The highest of the numerous steep-sided peaks is Mount Marcy, 5,344 feet, and second in rank is the equally beautiful eminence known as Whiteface, which rises 4,872 feet above the sea and about 3,000 feet above the adjacent valleys. Over 20 neighbouring forest-covered summits have elevations in excess of 4,000 feet.
The rugged region in northeastern New York and the adjacent portion of New England is in general without well-marked boundaries. On the north it extends into Canada, and is margined by the great valley through which flows the St. Lawrence. In the province of Ottawa, to the south of the St. Lawrence, there is a group of bold hills similar in many ways to the Green Mountains, known as the Notre Dame Mountains, which decreases in height when traced northward and merge with a roughened plateau which extends far to the northeast and embraces the Gaspé Peninsula and the table-land and hills of New Brunswick. Much of the country adjacent to the St. Lawrence on the south is rolling and hilly and contains large tracts of rich agricultural land which is highly favourable for dairying and sheep-raising. Mount Sutton, the highest elevation in the Notre Dame Mountains, is 4,000 feet high, and several other forest-covered mountain-like hills range in elevation from 1,000 to 3,000 feet. In the irregular valleys of this region there are a large number of lakes, situated in general from 700 to 1,000 feet above the sea. The Gaspé Peninsula to the north of New Brunswick, bordered on the north by the valley of the St. Lawrence, and on the east by the Gulf of St. Lawrence, has a rough relief and dense forests and is still a wilderness. The general elevation of the uplands in this little known region is about 1,500 feet. The surface is in reality a broad plateau in which numerous valleys have been excavated and from which rises a range of hills termed the Shikshock Mountains,
some 65 miles long and 4 or 5 miles wide, with peaks ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height.
Much of Maine and New Brunswick is similar to the region just referred to, and, in a generalized geographical view, may be considered as a part of the great coastal plateau of the northeastern portion of the continent, roughened by erosion so as to appear to one travelling through its valleys as an endless succession of rugged hills. The highest of the numerous prominences in Maine is Mount Katahdin, 5,200 feet, and in New Brunswick the culminating summit is Bald Mountain, 2,470 feet.
The rugged region embracing the Adirondacks, together with the more elevated portions of New England and of the adjacent provinces of Canada, has many geographical features that are similar to those of the southern Appalachians, but at the same time this, the central portion, differs in a marked way from the southern extension of the Atlantic mountains. The higher mountains in each of these picturesque regions are at least in a general way to be considered as the unconsumed remnants of ancient uplands, the greater part of which have been eroded away. The most marked contrast in the scenery of these two regions of similar elevation is due to the presence of a great number of lakes at the north, many of them of large size, and the total absence of such beautifying elements in the landscapes at the south. The streams at the north are frequently impetuous and broken by many cataracts and rapids, thus furnishing abundant water-power; while at the south the streams flow through more evenly graded channels and are without cascades except near their sources in the mountains. These contrasts are such as are to be found the world over between regions of young and old topography. The differences in the degree of development reached by the streams of the New England region as contrasted with those of the southern Appalachians, finds an explanation in the fact that New England, Canada, etc., was formerly covered with glacial ice, and on the retreat of the glaciers the surface of the land was left with an essentially new relief, while the southern Appalachians were
well to the south of the great ice invasion, and the streams of that region have reached a mature development, except near the sources of their head-water branches, which, like the topmost twigs of a tree, are always young.
The central, like the southern portion of the Atlantic mountains, is forest-clothed. All but a few of the highest summits in the Adirondack and White Mountains are concealed beneath a dense and varied growth of trees and shrubs. The summits, which are nearly bare of vegetation, like the upper 800 or 1,000 feet of Mount Washington, owe this condition to lack of soil rather than to elevation. Nowhere in the Atlantic mountains to the south of the but little known peaks near Hudson Strait, is the elevation sufficient to reach above what would be the timber-line under favourable soil conditions. The trees of the White and neighbouring mountains are principally various species of conifers, such as the pine, spruce, hemlock, larch, etc., which grow thickly on all but the most precipitous slopes. Before man disfigured the beauties of the land the lower hills, the river-valleys, and the borders of the numerous lakes and tarns were clothed with a more varied flora than the uplands. In these valley forests the dark foliage of evergreens is in summer mingled with the lighter green of maples, beeches, birches, oaks, locusts, and other broad-leaf trees. The forests are thus highly diversified and partake of the characteristics of both the northern and southern floras. It is in these northern woods that the glorious autumnal colouring for which North America is justly famous is to be seen in its greatest splendour. October is here truly the golden month of the year. At that season the bold hills, with their sombre robes of coniferous trees, rise like dark rugged islands above an undulating sea from which the most gorgeous sunset colours seem to be reflected. The brilliant colouring of the ripe foliage beautifies the land as with a cloth of gold. It is at this season also, during the tranquil days of what is known as Indian Summer, that a purple haze is thrown like a veil over the harlequin landscape, as if to subdue its glories and bring them within the range of man's appreciation.