THE NAUTILUS. 51 



and company talked snails, geology, botany and fungi, is a memory 

 will long live pleasantly with your humble author. 



Thunderhead is 5,500 feet according to the government maps, and 

 it rains there every week in my experience and it is more storm- 

 swept than many of the higher peaks. The beech trees and buck- 

 eyes are mere scrubs. Blockhouse mountain, of the same height, 

 Coontown, Russell's field and other good coves were hunted over 

 from the first camp. Then we moved along the backbone of the 

 range to Clingman's Dome, some 15 miles farther, passing Briar 

 Knob, the Derricks, Mirey Ridge, Siler's Bald and the Balsam, all 

 over a mile high, and good collecting ground. 



Clingman's Dome is 6,600 fee* high, covered with balsam fir, and 

 the sphagnum is so deep walking is like tramping on a spring mat- 

 tress, and very tiresome. When away from a well-beaten trail it is 

 difficult to walk a mile in less than an hour or an hour and a half. 

 Many of the rocks were large as houses, and when we went under 

 for rare shells we carried candles. These feed on the microscopic 

 fungi, I suspect, growing upon the roof, and they seemed to select a 

 roof nearly level. One of the P. ferrissi at a time is the rule, but on 

 Andrews Bald, afterwards, we sometimes found as many as eight on 

 one roof. Occasionally P. clarkii, andrewsce altivaga, depilata, or a 

 Gastrodonta lamillidens or c/appii, would be found on the same roof, 

 but not often. 



Bidding the remainder of our party and the mules farewell, as our 

 vacation was longer. Prof. Sargent and I, with a couple of mountain 

 friends, carrying our camp outfit upon our backs, parted company 

 from Pilsbry, Walker and Clapp, and made a trip to Andrews Bald 

 (5,900 feet) from Clingman, though we really started out for Mt. 

 Collins, some 600 feet higher. On Andrews, besides ferrissi, we 

 found our finest red andrewsce altivaga, banded with a still darker 

 band. • 



The next day we retraced our steps over Clingman and the Bal- 

 sam to Siler's Bald, where we took the Welsh Bald trail and con- 

 tinued in a southwesterly direction in North Carolina for the next 

 three weeks, with the exception of the two last days. Sometimes we 

 were on the trail all day, while on other days we went only a mile 

 or two. Sometimes we stayed several days in one place. The weather 

 man furnished his best, and only twice were we compelled to build 

 bark shelters to keep us dry. 



