are far below the freezing point in summer, their phenomena and productions are very much affected by the degree of cold, to which they are constantly exposed.

THE tops of our mountains are generally composed of rocks, covered over with moss. The trees appear to be very aged, but they are of a small size; and all of them are of the species called evergreens; pine, spruce, hemlock and fir; intermixed with shrubs and bushes. The powers of vegetation regularly diminish, as we approach the summit of an high mountain ; the trees degenerate in their dimensions, and frequently terminate in a shrubbery of spruce and hemlock, two or three feet high; whose branches are so interwoven and knit together, as to prevent our passing between them. Trees thus diminished, with shrubs and vines bearing different berries, and a species of grass 'called winter grass, mixed with the moss of the rocks, are all the vegetable productions, which nature brings forth on the tops of our highest moun

tains.

THE sides of our mountains are generally very irregular, and rough; and some of them appear to have large apertures, or openings among the rocks. Among these subterraneous passages, some caverns of a considerable extent have been found. One of these is at Clarendon, on the southeast side of a mountain, in the

made in Europe, is 7872 feet above the level of the sea. From the greater coldness of the American climate, the point of perpetual congelation in a similar American latitude, cannot exceed, but must rather fail something short of this. The altitude therefore of the white mountains, cannot be estimated as more than 7800 feet above the level of the ocean; and this is probably the altitude of the highest mountains in the eastern states.

D

The

westerly part of the town. The mouth of the cave is not more than two and an half feet in diameter. In its descent, the passage makes an angle with the horizon of 35 or 40 degrees; but continues of nearly the same diameter, through the whole length, which is thirty one feet and an half.---At that distance from the mouth, it opens into a spacious room; twenty feet long, twelve feet and an half wide, and eighteen or twenty feet high. Every part of the floor, sides, and roof of this room, appear to be a solid rock, but very rough and uneven. water is continually percolating through the top, and has formed stalactites of various forms; many of which are conical, and some have the appearance of massive columns.---At the north part of this room, there is another aperture of about forty inches diameter, very rough and uneven. This aperture is the beginning of another passage, through the internal parts of a solid rock: The direction of this passage is oblique, and full of stops or notches, and its length about twenty four feet. Descending through this aperture, another spacious room opens to view. The dimensions of this apartment are twenty feet in width, thirty in length, and twenty in height. In the spring of the year, the whole of this lower room is full of water; and at all other seasons, water is to be found in the lower parts of it.---No animal has been found to reside in this cave, and it evidently appears to be the production of nature, untouched by the hand of man.---Another of these caverns is at Danby, and a third at Dorset. These are said to be more curious than this at Claren

don, but they have not been properly explored. There are others in different parts of the state : All of them are the genuine productions of nature; never altered by art, and never inhabited by any of the human race.

ONE of the most curious and important operations which nature carries on in the mountains, is the formation of springs and rivers. All our streams of water in Vermont, have their rise among the green mountains: From a number of these uniting, are formed all those brooks and rivers, which run in different directions through the various parts of the country: And in general, the origin of rivers is to be found in the mountains, or high lands. In what manner do the mountains serve to produce these effects? And whence is it, that the highest mountains attract, collect, become the reservoirs, the receptacles, or the source, of the largest and most constant collections of water? One part of this effect, seems to be derived from the constant ascent of the waters, from the bowels to the surface of the earth. That water is contained in large quantities in the bowels of the earth, is evident from the springs which are found in almost all declivities; and from those which every where supply wells, at the depth of twenty or thirty feet from the surface of the earth. That these waters are constantly ascending towards the surface of the earth, and going off into the atmosphere, is evident from the evaporation which is constantly taking place, and from the manner in which heat, or as it is generally expressed, a drought affects both the surface of the earth, and the springs, by raising and dissi

pating the water from both. If this ascent of the waters be obstructed by any strata of clay, rocks, or any other substance, through which they cannot pass, they will collect in such quantities, as to form or find for themselves a channel, through which they may be discharged. The place of this discharge can only be on the side of a hill, or in some ground below the level of that place, where they are thus collected : And at such a place the waters would continue to issue out, as long as they continued to ascend, whatever might be the severity or duration of a drought. In some such way, it appears probable to me, that some of the springs are formed in the mountains, by waters which are ascending towards the surface of the earth; but which, instead of going off at the top, have their discharge in small quantities, at the sides of the mountains. Any strata of clay, rocks, or of any other matter, which would retain the water when it descends in rain or dew, and produce a spring from their descent, would also prevent the ascending water from passing thro' them, and might produce a spring from their ascent. This ascent of the waters from the bowels to the surface of the earth, is a constant, powerful, and unceasing operation of nature : And seems to be the only cause, which is adequate to the formation of those springs, which are perennial. Such springs could scarcely be formed, or preserved, by the waters which descend in rain, because they are so little affected in the severest droughts: In these seasons, instead of being replenished by rain, the earth to the depth of many feet, is much exhausted of

its water by heat. And no rain can ever fall upon the surface of the earth, which was not first carried off from it, by evaporation.

MOUNTAINS serve also to form small streams and rivulets, by preventing the evaporation of water from their surfaces. The vapours out of which the clouds and rains are formed, are all of them first raised from the surface of the earth. When the evaporation is in an open field, exposed to the sun and wind, the exhalations are soon carried off into the atmosphere, and the surface of the earth is left dry. When the evaporation is from lands covered over with thick trees and bushes, the influence of the sun and winds are much prevented; and the waters stagnate upon the surface of the earth, and render it wet and miry, in the form of swamps, and confined waters. When the evaporation is from the sides and tops of mountains, covered, with vegetables, the waters are but slowly carried off by the heat and wind; nor can they stagnate, but will be gradually and constantly descending down the sides of the mountains, in natural or artificial channels: And in this way, the mountains will also be constantly producing small streams or rivulets.

A similar effect will also be produced by the condensation and collection of the vapours in the atmosphere, occasioned by the height and coldness of the mountains. When the weather is fair and clear, and the atmosphere serene and pleasant in the vallies, the tops of the mountains are often obscured, and covered with a thick fog or cloud. In the cool mornings of the spring and fall, the vapours form a thick fog on