422 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



ren. What they can find for subsistence is probably a greater prob- 

 lem for them than for us. Most of the species of insects of the 

 higher altitudes, however, are ascending migrants that have lost their 

 way. Ichneumon flies, flying ants, syrphids, and butterflies, impelled 

 by the remarkable instinct to fly upwards, are overcome by the cold 

 and drop to perish on the ice. It is no trick to do a good day's col- 

 lecting by picking up these wayfarers when one is trudging over the 

 icy wastes. Even at the very summit 2^ miles above the base of the 

 mountain, the mountaineer guides report the usual occurrence of but- 

 terflies and syrphids. 



The plants of Mount Rainier are known comparatively well, for 

 many botanists have explored its slopes. Piper enumerates over 300 

 species of flowers. The birds and mammals are being studied by the 

 United States Biological Survey, but the species of higher mammals 

 are decidedly limited in number, so there is a prospect of this task 

 being completed within a reasonable time. As far as we know no 

 one has undertaken a methodical study of the many species of in- 

 sects found on Rainier's slopes. Desultory collecting of insects has 

 been done from time to time by Aldrich, Dyar, Kincaid, Piper, and 

 undoubtedly others, but the rich insect fauna of Rainier still remains 

 practically untouched and unknown, even though the alpine fauna 

 of no other mountain is so inviting and so accessible. The relation- 

 ship of the insect fauna of Rainier to that of the neighboring ice- 

 mantled peaks, Baker to the north, and Adams, Hood, and St. 

 Helens to the south, the extent of arctic components of its fauna, 

 the zonal distribution of its insects, and the correlation between the 

 insects and the distinctive flora are problems for the future. 



Much has been said and much has been written about the majesty 

 of this king of mountains and the wonder of its crown of alpine 

 flowers. Of these accounts the most expressive is the following brief 

 summary of John Muir's visit. 



Of all the fire-mountains, which, like beacons, once blazed along the Pacific 

 coast, Mount Rainier is the noblest in form, has the most interesting forest 

 cover, and, with perhaps the exception of Shasta, is the highest and most 

 flowery. Its massive white dome rises out of the forests, like a world by 

 itself, to a height of 14,000 to 15,000 feet. The forests reach to a height 

 of a little over 6,000 feet, and above the forests there is a zone of the 

 loveliest flowers, 50 miles in circuit and nearly 2 miles wide, so closely planted 

 and luxuriant that it seems as if nature, glad to make an open space between 

 woods so dense and ice so deep, were economizing the precious ground, and 

 trying to see how many of her darlings she can get together in one mountain 

 wreath — daisies, anemones, columbines, erythroniums, larkspurs, etc., among 

 which we wade knee-deep and waist-deep, the bright corollas in myriads touch- 

 ing petal to petal. Altogether this is the richest subalpine garden I have ever 

 found, a perfect flower elysium. 



The purpose of this paper is to urge others to share the joys of a 

 visit to this grandest of our national playgrounds. 



