ox THE MOUNTAIN TOP. I 33 



and then continued up it to the timber-hne. Throug-h this valley 

 ran a little rivulet, fed b}' the melting snow-banks on the moun- 

 tain above. Once the valley and hill-sides had been clothed with 

 spruce and pine, but thirty or more years ago they had been fire- 

 swept, and for the most part were now barren and desolate, and 

 the rocks and soil reflected the heat of the summer sun. A few 

 quaking" aspens were growing in clumps : a few will(^ws flourished 

 along the little rivulet, and a number of small flowering plants — 

 among them Pciitstcnioii i:;laucus stciioscpalits, one of the niost 

 beautiful of our pentstemons. found here a favorable habitat. A 

 short distance below where the trail enters the valley ends, and 

 a precipitous mountain side slopes to the park. A glacier once 

 came down the Thompson canyon, leaving a lateral moraine 

 along the mountain side, and this moraine, crossing the brink of 

 the valley, had dammed the little rivulet and made a swampy 

 place which now is mostly covered by willows and several old 

 spruce trees. Just above timber-line the trail turns aside to a 

 spring of the purest cold water. Have not we noticed that all 

 roads and trails have a side-path to the springs? 



" Sometimes there comes a taste surpassing sweet 

 Of common things — the very breath I take ; 

 A draught from some cool spring amid the brake." 



A steep ascent along the zigzag trail brings one out onto the 

 summit of the range, which here is cjuite broad and compara- 

 tively level. It is made of broken rock which has gathered soil 

 and been beautified by nature with such plants as the soil and 

 climate permit to grow. Grasses and sedges form most of the 

 covering, but among them grow many of the higher flowering 

 plants of an alpine sort: the gentian, Goifiami frii^^ida: the 

 primrose, Priiinila air^iistifolla : Sicz'crsia tiirbiiiafa : Phlox ccrs- 

 pitosa : SHeiic acaulis; painted-cup, Castillcja occidciifalis : Tctra- 

 iiciirls acaulis. Rydbergia grandiHom, Polygonum bistoridcs, 

 Paronicliia pulvinata. Here for the first time I collected Cam- 

 panula unitlora, a little plant which extends from the Colorado 

 Rocky Alountains to the arctic regions. On the July day when 

 I was here a snow bank lay on the level mountain top, and about 

 the snow and growing up through its edges were the large golden 



