THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 41 



south and east it is separated from civilization by the Painted 

 Desert, a region of bare rocks and burning sands more than a 

 hundred miles in width, while on the north and west a vast 

 and intricate network of cliffs and canyons make approach 

 from that side next to impossible. There are, however, few 

 inducements for civilized man to visit the region. Mining 

 prospects are not promising, timber is absent or inaccessible, 

 game is scarce, vegetation too scanty for profitable grazing, 

 and springs occur at such infrequent intervals that the danger 

 of running short of water is ever present. There are, of 

 course, no roads and one must follow the indistinct rails, often 

 over bare rocks, which serve the purposes of the wayfaring 

 Navajo. The only real inducement for white men to visit 

 the region is to see for themselves that most astonishing 

 monument, the great bridge. 



The Summit 



The country adjacent to Navajo mountain is more than 

 a mile above the level of the sea, but the summit is so far 

 above this elevation that it pushes up into climatic conditions 

 quite unlike those existing elsewhere in the region. Rains 

 appear to be frequent though possibly of short duration, and 

 the deformed aspens indicate that the snow in winter lies many 

 feet deep. The mountain itself is a laccolith, but the lava of 

 which the interior is undoubtedly composed nowhere comes 

 to the surface. The summit and the approaches to it are 

 strewn with immense rock fragments over which one must 

 frequently crawl or jump. A forest of Douglas fir, Engel- 

 mann's spruce, and yellow pine covers the summit and the 

 flora has some of the aspects of a mesophytic region, though 

 the porous sandstones absorb the moisture too rapidly to per- 

 mit of luxuriant plant growth. Here grow Antennarias, 

 Sedunis, painted cups, pentstemons, the willow herb, and 



