No. 16. NORTH AMEEICAN FAUNA. October, 1899. 



RESULTS OF A BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MOUNT SHASTA, 

 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



By C. IIakt Mekriam. 



INTRODUCTION. 



At the close of the field season of 1897 the Biological Survey had 

 nearly completed a reconnoissauce of Washington and Oregon, and in 

 previous years had carried its operations over extensive tracts in south- 

 ern, middle, and northeastern California, so that with tlie exception of 

 a rather large area in northern California fully two-tliirds of the Pacific 

 States had been covered. In 1898, therefore, the unworked part of 

 nortliern California, reaching from the Madeline Plains on the east to 

 the Pacific Ocean on the west, and from the Oregon boundary on the 

 north to Lassen Butte and adjacent parts of the Sierra on the south, 

 came to be the principal field of our investigations. In this area Mount 

 Shasta occupies a nearly central position. 



All high mountains, j)articularly those that stand alone, are likely to 

 throw light on the j)roblems of geographic distribution and are worthy 

 of careful study. Shasta, not only because of its great altitude, but 

 even more because of its intermediate position between the Sierrai and 

 the Cascades, promised an instructive lesson, and was therefore chosen 

 as a base station for part of the field work of 1898. 



From work previously done in the Sierra Nevada of California and 

 the Cascade Eange of Oregon it was known that many species of ani- 

 mals and plants are common to both ranges, and many restricted lo 

 one or the other. Shasta, lying between tbe two, was expected to share 

 the common features of both, and in addition afford the northernmost 

 limit of Sierra species, the southernmost limit of Cascade species, or 

 an overlapping of both, so that its fauna and flora, other things being 

 equal, should be richer than either. But Shasta [troved very much 

 drier than either the Sierra or the Cascades, and consequently many 

 species common to the two ranges were absent, and the total number 

 was less than was expected. Nevertheless, the mountain shares a large 

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