BIOLOGICAL RECONNOISSANCE AT FLATHEAD LAKE. 125 



These were all prepared in rolled' zinc holders to keep their shape until 

 they could dry. In the few wheat fields several flocks of sharp-tailed 

 grouse were flushed. Western meadow larks were everywhere abund- 

 ant. A few mourning doves, Zenaida macroura, were found around the 

 grain fields. Solitary sandpipers, Totanus solitarius, were along the 

 streams. In the bushes catbirds, Galeoscoptes carolinensis, blackbirds, 

 Scolecophagus cyanocephalus, yellow warblers, Dendroica aestiva, Audu- 

 bon's warbler D. auduboni, flycatchers and otners were always to be seen. 

 In the trees were black-headed grosbeaks, Habia melanocephala, and 

 woodpeckers, Lewis', Melanerpes torquatus, and Harris', Dryobates villo- 

 sus harrisi. It was a pleasure to sit in camp and listen to the notes of the 

 numerous species of birds. Over twenty were counted the first fore- 

 noon in camp, either by sight or by note. The total number seen during 

 the few days at Crow creek is 43. Remembering that the creek forms 

 but a narrow belt of vegetation in the valley, with dry plain and little 

 vegetation on either side, this number is quite large. 



GLACIAL ACTION. 



Mission valley is undoubtedly glaciated. Between Crow creek and 

 Post creek the valley contains many potholes, depressions in the surface 

 which catch and hold' water during the rainy season. At the lower end 

 of the valley, near St. Ignatius Mission, large boulders lie high on the 

 hills, while there are ridges and valleys plainly morainal. The valley and 

 mountain range are worthy of careful study, and will repay the person 

 who makes the study. 



The southern end of Mission valley has a much larger moraine than 

 that at the foot of Flathead lake, mentioned in succeeding pages. It 

 extends from the mountains on the east westward as far as Plains on the 

 Northern Pacific. It may extend farther as the writer has not been 

 over the ground. The morainal matter in the vicinity of St. Ignatius 

 makes hills several hundred feet high.* The height of these above this 

 plain has not been determined, but it is certainly more than 500 feet. 

 High up on these hills large boulders have been left stranded. The 

 morainal matter here is badly broken and cut. The hills show plainly 

 the presence of water in former times, beach marks being plainly visible 

 from a long distance. 



The entire Mission valley is made from, glacial material, with high 

 morainal deposit at both the northern and southern ends. The glacial 

 drift extends many miles westward. It has not been followed, and the 

 character of the soil cannot be given. The Pend d'Oreille river has cut 

 a new channel through this valley, removing the glacial drift to bed 

 rock. Whether this river drained the lake formerly covering Mission 

 valley is for geologists to determine. 



No doubt some of this material came from the Mission range. The 

 mass of it could not have done so. The Mission range extends north and 

 south. The canyons opening into the valley open westward. In front 

 of each of the larger canyons is a small morainal dam, extending generally 

 from north to south, or parallel with the range. The large moraines pre- 



* It is possible the morainal deposit may be on a foothill, covering 

 the rock. 



