6 BOTANY OF THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 



From Bennett Wells, retracing a portion of our route, our party went 

 (January 29 and 30) to Saratoga Springs. I remained at this camp until 

 February 5, when I went on alone to Besting Springs, where the expe- 

 dition camped until February 10. On that day a party set out for the 

 Charleston Mountains, Nevada, We camped the first night at Twelve 

 Mile Spring, the second night at Winter's ranch in Pahrump Valley. 

 On the morning of February 12 we left the latter point for Clark's 

 sawmill, situated in the yellow pine timber on the western slope of the 

 Charleston Mountains and north of Charleston Peak. At a height 

 of only 1,500 feet above Winter's ranch, which is about 2,800 feet above 

 sea level, the yuccas 1 began to appear. The last that we had seen were 

 on the Slate Range west of Lone Willow Spring. At 5,200 feet above 

 sea level the first junipers 2 appeared, in company with a third yucca, 3 

 and at about 5,500 feet became abundant. At 6,100 feet the nut pine 4 

 began, and at 7,500 feet the yellow pine, 5 accompanied a few hundred feet 

 higher by the white fir. fi Owing to the depth of the snow we were 

 unable to reach the sawmill, but camped about a mile below it at an 

 altitude of 8,350 feet. 



On the following day Mr. Palmer and I continued on foot up the 

 slope north of the sawmill to the summit of a ridge at an altitude of 

 0,000 feet, and then still northward to another ridge of 10,500 feet alti- 

 tude. At this point the characteristic tree is the bristle cone pine, 7 

 which is accompanied by the Rocky Mountain white pine. 8 



February 14 the party returned to Winter's ranch, where we re- 

 mained for two days, and on the 17th we returned to Resting Springs. 

 The expedition having received no mail for about four weeks past, 

 on the 19th of February a party of five crossed the valley of the Amar- 

 gosa and went southward a few miles on the road toward Saratoga 

 Springs. Then turning westward we passed up a shallow arroyo in 

 the mesa, and soon emerging from this, traversed the sloping mesa itself 

 until we reached the mouth of a canon in the Funeral Mountains, west 

 from Amargosa Borax Works. We journeyed up this canon for sev- 

 eral miles, nearly to the summit of the mountains, climbing around one 

 precipice, and camped at a small but excellent spring, known as 

 Mesquite Spring. 



February 21 Mr. Funston and I set out from this point for Pan- 

 amint, the nearest post-office, reaching that place February 23, after 

 encountering a terrific snowstorm in the Panamint Mountains. From 

 the 25th to the 28th we were returning with the mail to Ash Meadows, 

 Nevada, by way of Johnson Canon, Bennett Wells, and Furnace 

 Creek. 



l 



1 Yucca macrocarpa and J', arborescens. i Finns ponder osa xcopulorum. 



3 Jnniperus californica utahensu. 6 Abie* con color. 



3 Yucca baccata. 7 Pinm aristata. 



*Finu8 monophylla. ' Pt«w« flexili*. 



