238 



THE PLANT WORLD. 



are rather poor mountain climbers the first day out. The tired 

 school teacher starts with no appetite and a lagging- gait, which 

 can be scarcely kept up for a mile on the level prairie, but be- 

 comes hardened in eight weeks so that she can climb four or five 

 thousand feet in vertical height over a poor trail in thi-ee or four 



Figure 46. Bird's-eye view of the Illecillewaet Valley from Roger's 

 Peak, showing the wooded areas toward the bottom of the valley and 

 the numerous peaks, glaciers and snow fields at higher altitudes. To 

 the left is Sir Donald, a sharp peak rising more than 6^000 feet above 

 the valley. To the right of this is the great Illecillewaet Glacier, and 

 still farther to the right the Asulkan Glacier. 



hours. This gives astonishing evidence of the transforming in- 

 fluence of out-of-door life and careful training in climbing. It 

 is only less surprising that one who can climb only moderately 

 well at the start of such a trip will in the eight weeks become 

 transformed into somewhat of a Mazama, and find himself able 

 to climb seven or eight thousand feet in a day, it making little 

 difference whether he has a trail or not. He finally becomes 

 hardened into a veritable Muir, and will go up as long as he can 

 get a hand or foot hold, absolutely oblivious to danger and never 

 tliinking whether he can get down or not. All this seems fool- 



