PARRY — ALPINE FLORA. 



533 



tains, I was for a long time greatly puzzled to conform what I 

 actually saw in the summer snows of the Rocky Mountains 

 with what I had read in reference to the Alps. How far actual 

 experience and observation have led me to modify these views, 

 will appear from a brief review of the results here arrived at. 

 My first ascent to the snowy range was made on the 14th 

 of June, 1861, from the upper waters of South Clear Creek, 

 my reliable guide on this occasion being a foaming ice-cold 

 brook, appropriately named Mad Creek, which brawled past 

 my rude cabin door, and which I felt confident, if resolutely 

 followed, would lead me in the most direct course to its 

 snowy sources. With an enthusiasm, which on after experi- 

 ence I learned to temper with more deliberation, I climbed, 

 panting, up the steep rocky slopes, forcing my way through 

 underbrush, and clambering over fallen timber, only allowing 

 myself to rest as some new floral form drew my attention, still 

 intent on reaching the open and commanding summits be- 

 yond the pine growth, to which my eyes had been so often 

 directed from the lower plains and valleys. Such interrup- 

 tions, however, increased with every step as 1 drew near to 

 the sharply defined line that limits timber growth, the strag- 

 gling alpine plants increasing both in number and variety, 

 till I was fairly bewildered with the strange novelties by 

 which I was surrounded. The first patches of snow en- 

 countered were the wasting remains of winter drifts, entan- 

 gled in the deep woods which mark the upper belt of timber ; 

 these drifts, stained and spattered by the fallen leaves and 

 decayed bark of overhanging pines, were rapidly melting in 

 the warm atmosphere, the spongy bed of moss, and decayed 

 vegetation underneath, being saturated with the icy waters 

 that oozed from their sides. The snow itself, made up of 

 small rounded grains, showed that it had been subjected to 

 alternate thawing and freezing, by which the original feathery 

 mass was converted into agglutinated ice. Some of the 

 smaller trees bore evidence of the depth of snow in which 

 they had been buried by the abrupt inclination of their lower 

 branches forming a sort of circular tent wall around each 

 trunk, which as the melting snows gave way left them in 

 deep pit-holes, apparently sunk away from the general snow 

 level. At and beyond the timber line the snow lay in patches 

 of greater or less extent, occupying depressions in the open 

 valley, or smoothly filling up broad scooped recesses, on the 

 steeper mountain slopes. Along the immediate stream bor- 

 ders, and frequently over-arching the rushing waters, the 

 snow still lay deep, though unsafe to the foot, the constant 

 wasting underneath weakening the support, and by abrupt 

 plunges dropping the unwary traveller into treacherous holes. 

 The warmth of the soil covered by the wasting snows, was 

 farther evidenced by the shooting forth of green leaves and 



