a | GIANINI, Alaska Peninsula Notes. 395 
The country surrounding the main camp is very flat and the 
whole intersected by a number of glacial streams and dotted all over 
with ponds; in places there are long stretches of sand and gravel 
and many marshes and patches of tundra. A good part of this is 
made land and is still in process of formation as is plainly shown by 
the successive old beach lines which extend inland quite a distance. 
That the big mountains are gradually breaking up and wearing 
away is perceptible and a fine example of one method could be seen 
from the camp. About five miles away stands what was at one 
time a volcano but the side facing the camp had been blown out and 
down into the valley leaving exposed a great core of sulphur which 
however, is protected from grasping hands by an intervening river 
of ice. 
Alders and willows follow the river courses and of the latter there 
must be five or six varieties from a low creeping shrub to a fair 
sized tree. A variety of grasses grow here both tall and wide of leaf. 
Flowering plants abound in season though some are very minute 
and hug mother earth for warmth and comfort. Many varieties 
of plants would be recognized by name but not in substance, how- 
ever the marsh marigold was a pleasant surprise one day found 
blooming early as it does in the east. A beautiful variety of the 
wild geranium was everywhere abundant in July. One day while 
laboring up the verdureless side of a bleak mountain I found grow- 
ing in the slides of rotten stone a few groups of a brave little plant 
some with red and others with yellow flowers surrounded by round- 
ing leaves and the whole not over an inch in height; they proved 
to be of the saxifraga family. In some places violets were as 
plentiful as in our woodlands in Spring and the day I shot my larg- 
est bear I wore a boutonniere. 
The great coarse cow parsnip was very common and the dry 
stalks furnished the kindling for our fires. 
In season a choice of berries is offered from the crow berry 
nestling close to the ground to great luscious salmon berries half as 
large as your thumb. Ferns are there in quantity and variety 
from tall, stout brakes to a very delicate Filix fragilis, but none 
appealed to me more than our own little polypody which I found 
growing in the sides of great cliffs. 
In bear hunting there are many enforced waits and these intervals 
