CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC 181 



hotel, where we stayed a few days to explore. There were 

 two valleys from here, the most northerly and larger, called 

 Grizzly Gulch, penetrating further into the mountains to the 

 north of Gray's Peak; the smaller and steeper leading to a 

 small collection of miners' huts called Kelso's Cabin, and then 

 along a wide, upland valley just above timber-line up to the 

 very foot of Gray's Peak, whence a winding mule-track led to 

 its summit. 



On the second day, when going up Grizzly Gulch, we came 

 to a miner's cabin, and two men we saw there asked us to 

 have dinner with them. They gave us some good soup, pork, 

 and peas, with hot coffee. They told us that a little higher 

 up there was a fine place for flowers, and that they were going 

 by there to their work. So we went with them, and about a 

 quarter of a mile up we came to some patches of snow at 

 the foot of a fine alpine, rocky slope, and all around it was a 

 complete flower-garden. We remained here some hours to 

 botanize, and gathered thirty-five species of alpine plants in 

 flower. Some, as Mertensia alpina, Parnassia Umbriata, 

 Phacelia sericea, and Primula angustifolia, were among the 

 gems of the Rocky Mountain flora. Others were European, 

 as Anemone narcissiHora, Ranunculus nivalis, Astragalus 

 Alpina, and Androsace septentrionalis; while others, again, 

 were British, as Silene acaulis, Dry as octopetala, and the rare 

 Swertia perennis, which here dotted the grass with its curious 

 slaty-blue flowers. The scenery was just like many a Swiss 

 Alp, where snow peaks were not in sight, and the flowers, if 

 not quite so brilliant or so numerous in species, were especially 

 charming to me from the curious mixture of European and 

 American species. 



On our second visit to Kelso's Cabin we were overtaken 

 by Mr. Thomas West, an English mining engineer, in whose 

 house in Grizzly Gulch we had dined the day before, and he 

 asked us to make use of his hut high up the valley, so as to 

 have plenty of time for our visit to Gray's Peak. We took 

 our lunch in a miner's hut, and I was greatly pleased with the 

 little chipmunks — a very small ground-squirrel — which came 

 round the door to pick up crumbs, and after a little time 



