188 PINUS CONTORTA. 
admirably accords with the light and dark 
markings peculiar to the slaty rocks amidst 
which I saw it; when the animal is perfectly 
still, it is quite impossible to make it out to be 
other than a portion of the rock, until by moving 
it betrays itself. 
The most conspicuous pine in these elevated 
districts is the Pinus contorta. It thrives at 
an altitude of 7,000 feet above the sea-level. 
Where there are Indians the young trees of this 
species are invariably stripped of their bark to a 
height of seven feet from the ground, or as high 
up the trunk as an ordinary person can reach. 
This is done in order to procure the inner bark, 
which the savages use as food; they eat it in the 
fresh state as peeled from the tree, and com- 
pressed into cakes, in which state it can be pre- 
served for a long time, and is easily carried. 
The Summit Camp is placed in a snug nook 
under a massive slaty kind of mountain; there is 
little to be seen from it save rugged hilltops and 
snow. Near the terminal point of the Boundary- 
line is the watershed, and it is hardly an exag- 
geration to say one may sit and smoke his pipe 
with one foot in the water that finds its way into 
the Atlantic, whilst the other is bathed in that 
flowing into the Pacific. 
