THE MINNESOTA SEASIDE STATION. 



197 



acquainted with the forests, the prairies, the phiins, the foot-hills, the 

 mountains, tlie glaciers, the deserts and the sea. 



At such points as Lake Louise, where the mountain scenery is inde- 

 scribably grand, there is an unequaled field for the study of talus- 

 vegetation, the influence of the snow-line and the avalanche upon plant 

 distribution and the characteristic population of mountain-park and 

 meadow. Here one comes close to the wild life of the peaks, and far 

 above the lake one may see the goats grazing upon their inaccessible 

 crags or one may sometimes hear the roar of a grizzly rising distinct 



Fig. 4. 



View o n Lake Louise showim; Efkect of Snow Slides and Talus Slopes on the 



Distribution op Plants. 



above the clamor of the torrents. At Glacier the CiTcct of icc-ciii-renls 

 upon the growth and distribution of plants is most interestingly dis- 

 played. A series of photographs beginning just in front of the ice-mass 

 and extending some hundreds of yards down the valley of the Illi- 

 cillewaet shows at a glance how revegetation has proceeded, as the glacier 

 has slowly and regularly retreated. 



The exact situation of the Minnesota Seaside Station is in a little 

 cove at the entrance of the Straits of Fuca, nearly opposite Cape 

 Flattery, just outside the picturesque harbor of Port Eenfrew and about 

 sixty miles north of the city of Victoria. The west shore of Vancouver 

 island is described in the old books of travel as a 'stern and rock-bound 

 coast,' and it is indeed a perilous one for navigation. During much of 



