228 THE PLANT WORLD 



cold stream rippling over its stony bed. Another half mile of ascent 

 and the canon divides, the stream coming from the left-hand fork. The 

 right-hand branch is a narrow gorge, having very abrupt sides, and so 

 situated that it is sheltered from the summer sun. A miniature glacier 

 of compacted snow fills its bed and lingers late into the summer, per- 

 haps, after winters of unusual snowfall, carrying a lingering remnant 

 into a second season. 



At the time of my last visit, June 20, 1901, the snow-field began 

 just above the mouth of the gorge, and extended up it nearly a mile. 

 The altitude at the foot of the snow must be about 6000 feet, and as the 

 ascent is very steep, the upper end must be about 6500 feet. In many 

 places the condiictivity to heat of the rock- wall of the gorge had formed 

 a crevice between it and the snow-bank. At one point this was sixteen 

 feet deep, which would indicate a depth of perhaps twenty-five feet in 

 the middle of the bank. The bent and broken shrubbery of the sides 

 showed that at the close of winter the snow had been fully eight feet 

 deeper. No water flowed from the snow-bank, the wastage being ab- 

 sorbed by the dry atmosphere, or percolating through the porous bed 

 of the gorge. 



The influence of this mass of snow on the vegetation of the canon 

 was manifested in two ways: first, by enabling a few plants to remain 

 at an altitude much lower than that which they usually occupy else- 

 where in this region; and second, by the presence of a few representa- 

 tives of a more northern flora, which are found in these southern moun- 

 tains only at this place, so far as is known. 



The most conspicuous member of the first group is Pinus alhicaulis, 

 which caps the summits of our highest peaks, at 10,000-11,000 feet, and 

 consequently is here some 4,000 feet below its usual altitude. There 

 are also thickets of Salix fiavescens, which were not yet in leaf, 1,500 

 feet lower in altitude than elsewhere in these mountains. SelaghieWi 

 WaUoiii was plentiful in the crevices of the cliffs, a si)ecies I had never 

 seen below 7,000 feet, and then not in abundance, and which is more 

 commonly found at 9,000-10,000 feet. I also got a specimen of Drabu 

 corrugata, which has been collected elsewhere only on the summit of 

 Grayback, 11,725 feet, and of San Jacinto, over 10,000 feet above the 

 sea. 



The second group of plants, those which have not been found else- 

 where in southern California, is a very interesting one. Some of these, 

 probably all of them, may yet be discovered in other canons of these 

 mountains, but as yet none, with a single exception, have been reported 

 from any station within hundreds of miles; and it is most improbable 

 that there is any other unexplored canon in which so many northern 

 strangers are congregated. 



