1 62 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



BIOLOGY IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



By T. D. A. COCKERELL, 



UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO.* 



FOR the purposes of this article the term Rocky Mountains will 

 be understood to mean the states and territory including and 

 surrounding these mountains in the United States ; that is to say, New 

 Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The area thus indicated, 

 stretching from north to south, and including both mountains and 

 plains, is of course extraordinarily varied. Because of the different 

 conditions of temperature, moisture, soil, etc., found within its borders, 

 it possesses as a whole a fauna and flora extremely rich in species. It 

 offers, in the high mountains and to the north, a large assemblage of 

 circumpolar types, some exactly like those of northern Europe and 

 Asia, others variously modified. It gives us, on the plains and to the 

 south, a series of species of Austral origin, some of them intruders even 

 from the tropics. Still again, in its valleys and forests, it has devel- 

 oped a large number of endemic types, found nowhere else in the world. 



Such a region necessarily presents great attractions to the naturalist. 

 It has been visited by numerous government expeditions and private 

 individuals, beginning early in the nineteenth century, for the purpose 

 of collecting its scientific treasures. It has yielded to these an abun- 

 dant harvest, not only of living animals and plants, but also of fossil 

 forms. Every museum of any consequence contains Rocky Mountain 

 material, and innumerable publications are devoted to its description 

 and illustration. These being the facts, a superficial observer might 

 very well conclude that the natural history of the Rocky Mountains 

 was thoroughly known. So far, however, is this from being true that 

 it would be more correct to say that the scientific study of Rocky Moun- 

 tain biology has hardly begun. 



Any one who examines the published accounts of Rocky Mountain 

 animals and plants will find, at least in the majority of groups, little 

 more than descriptions of species. Putting aside the enormous num- 

 ber of species still undescribed, we find that the ' known ' species are 

 in fact very little known at all. Among the insects, for instance, there 

 are hundreds of which we do not even know the locality, nearer than 

 the name of the state, and those of which we know the life history are 

 comparatively few. The details of geographical distribution, the char- 



* Since this paper was written, the writer has moved to the University of 

 Colorado, at Boulder. Mr. L. C. Himebaugh is now in charge of Colorado 

 College Museum. 



