32 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



head of the glacier. The general appearance of things indicated 

 that the glacier was diminishing in size, and Sissons told me that 

 the surface of the glacier was at least from seventy-five to one 

 hundred feet lower than at the time of his last visit, four years 

 previous. 



We lunched on the rim of the crater, at 3 P. m. went down to 

 where we had left our horses, -and after a hard and fatiguing 

 though glorious ride of four hours reached the hotel ranch. 



We found that the crater cone is composed of a reddish lava, 

 while the mother peak rising far above it is formed of a hard, 

 bluish trachyte. Its moraines extend for ten to twelve miles 

 down the western slope, passing beyond the west side of the stage 

 road north of Sissons, where more or less rounded hillocks of this 

 bluish trachyte abut on the hills of metamorphic rocks of the 

 Trinity and Sacramento Mountains. 



We also saw as we descended that the large moraine extend- 

 ing from the cone ending in the " Devil's Garden " is flanked by 

 two lateral moraines, the median one, or the garden, extending 

 from the base of the crater cone. What adds to the singularity 

 and wildness of the scene at the upper end of this " garden,'^ or 

 rather playground of mountain imps, are the numerous parallel 

 concentric ridges of lava rock, forming a succession of transverse 

 terminal moraines, with benches of clear soil between them. 

 These parallel curved rows of stones and angular gravel mark 

 the rapid retreat and melting away of the glacier, which, with its 

 neighbor, extended down on the western slope. 



To my disappointment, I found no Alpine fauna or flora on the 

 summit of the crater, and believe there is none on the main peak. 

 The vegetation was very scanty where we camped, only grasses 

 and plants which had straggled up from below, and, so far as I 

 remember, nothing but lichens occurred on the bare rocks and 

 moraines above. No Alpine or arctic butterflies or moths occurred, 

 such as I was familiar with, and which abound on the summits of 

 the Rocky Mountains. A few spiders, a small centipede {Litlio- 

 hius), and a few ants' nests were to be seen, and under stones a 

 bristle-tail {Macliilis), but the only distinctive Alpine insect on 

 the mountain was a wingless grasshopper (PezoteUix), though 

 that occurred lower down, in the zone of firs. I saw a common 

 Pieris butterfly at the top of the crater, but this was like one seen 

 flying below. 



This entire lack of any Alpine plants or animals indicates that 

 Mount Shasta is too young and isolated a mountain to have been 

 reached by any waifs from arctic or Alpine sources, and their 

 absence suggests that the glaciers had at a very recent date 

 melted away and disappeared from the western side of the 

 mountain. 



