OCT.. 1899.] 



EFFECTS OF SCANTY MOIST[JRE. 



19 



EFFECTS OF SCANTY ^NiOTSTClJE. 



The flora of Shasta, contrasted with that olinoistei- iiiountains imme- 

 diately nortli and immediately soutli, is poor in species and individuals; 

 and the same is true in less degree of the fanna. At least nineteen 

 characteristic genera and numerous additional species of i)lants com- 

 mon to the Sierra and the Cascades, are unknown (p. 80); and to these 

 must be added the distinctive s])ecies of each range which fail to reach 

 Shasta. The luxuriant mountain meadows and ilower beds that form 

 such conspicuous features of the timberliue region in the Cascades, the 

 Olympics, the High Sierra, and the IJocky Mountains are wholly 

 absent, and the only areas that in any way resemble tliem are the 



Fig. 8.— Heatlu r imadow l.onluriug Squaw (Jrci'k. Slia.sta pcalv in ilislaiK 



September 22, 1898. 



■11(1 with fresh snow, 



insignificant patches of mountain heather and accompanying plants 

 that carpet the moist bottoms of the glacier basins and form narrow 

 beds along the tiny streams, where tliey are concentrated by the local 

 distribution of soil moisture. The only real soil above timberliue is 

 restricted to the borders of the streamlets, where the decomposing 

 heather has left a shallow covering. Everywhere else are pumice, 

 broken lava, and barren clifl's. 



The summer rainfall amounts to little or nothing, and when rains 

 occur they sink and vanish in the thirsty pumice sand. The streams 

 from melting snows are exceedingly small, averaging hardly more than 

 a foot or two in width, and most of them disappear before reaching the 

 base of the mountain. The turbid streams from the glaciers are larger, 



