22 WILD ANIMALS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 



HUDSONIAN ZONE. 



The Hiulsonian. or tiniberline, zone is a narrow belt around the 

 peaks about 1,000 feet in average vertical width, reaching generally 

 from G,000 to 7,000 feet in altitude on the -cold northeast exposures 

 find from 7,000 to 8,000 on the warmer southwest exposures. On very 

 steep slopes it often runs beyond these average limits, falling lower 

 on cold and rising higher on warm exposures. Its borders are very 

 irregular, but across a canyon its upper edge may be readily traced 

 on opposite slopes by the fingertips of dwarfed or prostrate trees, 

 while below it melts into the solid Canadian Zone forest. It has 

 far more open than timbered areas and includes cliffs and extensive 

 rock slides and snow banks. In midsummer it is the most attractive 

 zone of the mountains, with its' brilliant flower gardens carpeting the 

 open sloj)es and grassy meadows, its miniature forests and scattered 

 groves of dwarfed and wind-beaten timber, its unusual bird and ani- 

 mal life, numerous snow banks, little lakes and roaring rivulets, cool, 

 fresh air, and glorious mountain vie'^s, all combining to make of it 

 an inspiring camp ground. 



Its dominant tree is the small white-barked pine (Finns alhicaulis) . 

 but the dwarfed mountain tamarack (Larix lyeJli) is occasionally 

 found. The Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir also occur in 

 stunted, dwarfed, and windswept forms, reaching to extreme timber- 

 line, although their real forest growth is confined to the zone below. 

 Shrubby vegetation is scarce except for dwarfed willows, the purple 

 and white heathers {PhyUodoce empetrif ormis and P. glanduUf ora) , 

 Rocky Mountain laurel (Kalmia glauca), mountain gooseberry, and 

 dwarf blueberry. The conspicuous flowering plants, however, are 

 legion and are often massed in areas of almost solid color. The great 

 yellow dogtooth violet fills this zone as well as the Canadian Zone 

 below and at times gives a dominant color to the slopes. The large 

 white flowers and woolly heads of the west- wind flower {Ptilsatilla oc- 

 cidentalis), the creamy globe flower, and the milk vetch are abundant 

 and conspicuous, the creamy, roselike I>7njas octopetala. often carpets 

 the ground, and many species of saxifrage are found, with the little 

 white Areiutna and Stellaria. The lilues are conspicuous in the little 

 larkspur, the Jacob's-ladder (Pohnnonmrn- riscosvm). a water leaf 

 (Phacelia), Venus's-looking-glass, and the deep-blue gentians. The 

 reds and pinks and purples are shown in Indian paint brushes, moun- 

 tain evening primroses ( Godetia quadrivulnera) , louseworts, elephant 

 heads, and Perdxtciiion. The yellows of buttercups, cinquefoils, and 

 golden asters, and the orange of Arnica^ hawk-weed, and Senecio are 

 conspicuous. 



Among the mammals are white goats, mountain sheep, hoary 

 marmots, conies, and alpine chipnumks, while the Columbia ground 



